What documentation must I keep for a package and how long?

Five-year retention period for the technical file

Every packaging must be accompanied by an EU declaration of conformity according to the model set out in Annex VIII of Regulation (EU) 2025/40, together with the technical documentation on which it is based. That documentation is retained for five years. This is the core of what is established on this subject: not the declaration in isolation, but the file behind it — the substantiation demonstrating that the packaging complies with the requirements of the regulation.

What specifically must be included in that file is detailed in Annex VIII of the regulation itself; it contains the model for the declaration of conformity and the nature of the underlying documentation to be kept. Additionally, separately from the file, the name and postal address of the responsible party must be stated on or attached to the packaging — this is not a retention obligation but a visibility requirement, and is not part of the file itself. For the heavy metals limit and the PFAS ban for food contact packaging, these standards form the substantive test against which the documentation in the file must be capable of satisfying, not that a separate retention procedure applies to them.

Where this appears in Annex VIII of the regulation

Annex VIII of Regulation (EU) 2025/40 contains the model for the EU declaration of conformity and describes the technical documentation on which it is based, including the five-year retention period for keeping it. This is the source for both the form of the declaration and the retention obligation; for the exact substantive requirements of the file itself, the text of that annex is the appropriate source to consult, as it indicates for each component what the documentation must substantiate.