Plastic sachets for condiments such as sugar or ketchup are facing a phase-out in Spanish bars and restaurants under the European Union’s new packaging regulation. Adopted in December 2024 and published in January 2025, Regulation (EU) 2025/40, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, or PPWR, sets a phased timetable: it applies generally from August 12, 2026, while restrictions on specified single-use packaging formats in hospitality take effect on January 1, 2030.
Customers may continue to find familiar plastic packets on café tables during the transition. The regulation prohibits the placing on the market of certain packaging formats listed in Annex V from 2030, including specified single-use plastic portions for condiments and similar products. Examples include small sachets and tubs, as well as comparable containers used for sauces, sugar and coffee milk. The restriction applies to the plastic packaging, not to the food or condiment inside it. Salt is not specifically identified in the available descriptions of the listed formats; whether a particular product is covered depends on its packaging and use under the regulation.
What Will Disappear
The restrictions cover more than sachets: specified single-portion plastic containers, including tubs and trays, for condiments, sauces, coffee milk and sweeteners are also included. Restaurants and cafés will need to consider alternatives such as refillable dispensers and reusable containers, while checking that any replacement packaging meets the regulation’s definitions and requirements. The PPWR’s wider structure covers packaging design and recyclability, with rules also addressing recycled content; it also covers labelling, reuse and waste prevention.
Changing the material alone does not necessarily change whether packaging falls within a regulated category. A paper-based pack with a plastic component, for example, must be assessed under the PPWR’s applicable material definitions; compostable packaging is not automatically exempt simply because it is compostable. The regulation also sets broader 2030 requirements, including a maximum 50% empty-space ratio for certain packaging used in transport and e-commerce, as well as grouped packaging, and minimum recycled-content thresholds for food-contact plastics of 30% for PET and 10% for other plastics, subject to the regulation’s detailed provisions.
Exceptions and Practical Challenges
The exceptions are limited. Covered portions may continue to be supplied together with prepared main point food intended for immediate consumption. That is not a general exemption for hospitality: a sachet placed on a café table for dine-in service does not automatically qualify. A separate exception applies in certain healthcare and care settings when single-use packaging is necessary for hygiene or safety.
Spain’s businesses will apply the directly applicable PPWR alongside the national structure established by Ley 7/2022 on waste and contaminated soils and Real Decreto 1055/2022 on packaging and packaging waste, insofar as those rules remain compatible with EU law. The transition will involve hospitality operators and packaging producers, with suppliers and waste-management systems also affected. Refillable service formats and packaging redesign are among the approaches being considered as prevention and reuse take priority over recycling alone.
For many businesses, the change will require planning and investment, from finding alternatives and training staff to changes across supply chains. Other sectors, such as bathroom design, have also faced regulatory-driven change, as seen when walk-in showers began replacing traditional shower trays in response to developing norms.
In The Future
With the Annex V restrictions due to take effect on January 1, 2030, Spain’s bars and restaurants have a defined transition period to adapt how they serve individual portions. The PPWR is part of a broader European effort to reduce packaging waste and encourage reuse, while requiring businesses to distinguish between restricted formats and those that remain permitted. Plastic sachets remain in use for now, but the rules set a deadline for specified formats.
