Food contact in Latin America: Mercosur, FTAs with China and which documents to request before placing the order
Compliance is not resolved at the port of entry. It is resolved during quotation, when changing materials, testing laboratories, or suppliers still costs nothing.
Mercosur: the positive list rules
For Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay, plastic materials intended for food contact are governed by Mercosur positive lists. The baseline regulation for plastics is GMC Resolution 02/12, supplemented by separate positive lists for adhesives and elastomers.
In December 2025, GMC Resolution 34/2025 was approved, introducing a dedicated technical regulation for food-contact silicones with specific migration limits. If your programme includes silicone caps, sealing gaskets, or collapsible silicone bottles, this regulation applies directly and is worth mentioning when you ask for a quote.
Mexico and the Andean region
In Mexico, commercial labeling is governed by NOM-050-SCFI, while sanitary and food-safety compliance is overseen by COFEPRIS depending on the product type; your regulatory advisor will specify the precise test report required for your case. In Colombia, clearance is handled through INVIMA, and other Andean countries require equivalent compliance documentation.
In all cases, the core technical documentation requested is identical: a migration test report for the specific material, issued by a recognised laboratory, alongside the product technical data sheet (TDS). What varies is the local administrative filing procedure, not the underlying technical proof.
A certificate of origin directly changes the landed cost
Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua have active free trade agreements (FTAs) with China. With the correct certificate of origin, the goods can enter with a tariff preference that completely changes the landed cost.
It is worth doing the sums before agreeing the price: ask your customs broker for the specific HS tariff classification and the import duty rates with and without FTA preference. We have seen projects become viable or unviable based entirely on this duty margin. We issue the certificate; classification is confirmed by your customs agent.
The four documents to request when quoting
First: a migration test report for the exact raw material to be used in production, stating the standard and the laboratory. Second: a material composition declaration or technical data sheet. Third: a BPA-free declaration if polycarbonate (PC) is involved or if your client requires it. Fourth: a certificate of origin, if your destination country has an active FTA with China.
Requesting these documents during the RFQ stage is completely free and reveals a great deal about the manufacturer. A manufacturer that has these documents to hand sends them within a day; a vendor that has to scramble to obtain them will take weeks, and those delay weeks will hit right when your shipment is already afloat.
The most common scheduling mistake
Leaving regulatory compliance until the order is already in production. Laboratory testing takes time, and certain migration protocols require physical specimens drawn from the actual production run rather than pre-production prototypes.
If you confirm the destination country during initial enquiry, we run laboratory testing in parallel with manufacturing, and the documentation arrives with the goods. It is the same amount of work, organised differently.