The food packaging sector has been subjected in recent years,to an important evolutionary process; new plastics have been developed in order to improve the ranks of materials designed to be used for food contact packaging.
Near these "technological "developments which involved, among other things, not only packs "shelf", but also the article for the cooking, conservation, food processing, there has been a progressive adaptation of European legislation and act in individual Member States to monitor the safety of these materials.
Of course, since the growth of globalization, which are then linked to import and export of materials and raw materials for the production of food items, checks have been intensified and were created special bodies to monitor compliance to legislative parameters defined and reporting at European level of alert for any unsafe products to the consumer (RASFF).

Plastic is the material which, given its multiple use, has been and is currently on the focus of attention.
Fortunately, for about 10 years, for plastics has been set a harmonized European legislation (implemented by specific national measures), so in all Member States in relation to this material "we can speak the same language."
Specifically, the legislation which has so far referred to, the key legislation, is the European Directive 2002/72/EC of 6 August 2002 relating to materials and articles made of plastics intended to come into contact with food.
Over time, this Directive has been amended and revised several times (7 amendments), in order to adapt to technological advances in the field. Following several amendments and developments increasingly massive, the European Commission has decided to establish a new regulation to replace, in part initially and then completely, the old Directive including its amendments (the start was given to the work in 2010 with the PIM, a copy of the Draft Rules, and then realize all the new Regulation 10/2011). Important defining the difference between a Directive and Regulations.
As for a Directive, it is necessary in order to become active in a single Member State, to be transposed by the Member State itself. On the contrary with regard to the Regulations, its publication in the Official Journal of the European automatically makes it active across Europe (member states) without requiring that it be implemented (by decree, for example).
As already mentioned, the new Regulation introduces several changes from the old directive, but of course the Commission took note of the time necessary to producers and the industry in adapting to the new rules, has decided to gradually introduce these innovations.

NEW REGULATION (EU) 10 / 2011 on materials and articles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs
The new regulation stems from the simplification of legislation became necessary in view of the many amendments and modifications (7 total) that were already underway in several years, the European Directive 2002/72/EC relating to plastic materials and articles intended of food contact substances.
Also arises in relation to the need for technical adaptation compared to the many innovations introduced to improve the articles intended for food contact substances of use to which it is currently difficult to think of packaging and objects as consisting of a single type of plastic (currently items could be constituted of multiple layers, up to 15 different plastic materials in order to optimize the functionality and protection of food products and reducing packaging waste).
In this type of materials or objects of plastic multi-layer, the layers can be separated from food by a functional barrier.
This is a barrier consisting of a layer within the materials or articles intended to come into contact with food that prevents the migration of substances through the barrier in food.