Most chemicals in food packaging lack data needed to protect consumers

In a new peer-reviewed scientific study published in the journal Environmental Science & methodology, scientists from the Food Packaging Forum Foundation present a practical, novel, and scalable approach to better protect consumer health. By grouping the greater than 15,000 chemicals that can be utilized or found in food packaging, kitchenware, or other food contact materials, chemicals can be prioritized to regulatory review or phase out. This new approach will support the prevention of regrettable substitutions.

Current food contact material regulations in Europe and North America do not sufficiently protect consumers’ health because 87% of chemicals lack adequate security data to consider the wide range of health impacts that can occur. Until these food contact chemicals can be appropriately tested and the missing data are made available, the study’s authors propose using a grouping approach to efficiently prioritize possibly hazardous chemicals based on their chemical structure. Phase-outs, legal restrictions, or prioritized testing based on this grouping approach could help policymakers and manufacturers overcome the problematic data gaps and better protect people and environmental health.

Key Findings:

The published study includes a publicly available and evidence-based list of known hazardous chemicals in FCMs (FCCprio List) as well as an interactive consumption (FCCgroup, password: fccgroup2026) to help consumers easily identify whether a chemical belongs to one of the 38 priority groups. Based on publicly available risk data, the chemicals on the FCCprio List could be considered to greater restricted consumption in food contact applications. Given the current lack of necessary data, chemicals within an FCCgroup priority group(s) could be reevaluated to their security and should not be utilized as drop-in substitutes to known hazardous chemicals—a practice that is known as regrettable substitution and that has occurred to chemicals such as bisphenol A (replaced by bisphenol F).

Quotes from the authors

Dr. Helene Wiesinger, co-author, Food Packaging Forum Foundation said: “There are many known hazardous chemicals in food packaging, however replacing them with very similar chemicals that have not been sufficiently tested is not solving the issue. Based on already known hazardous chemicals, we have identified 38 priority chemicals groups, and we developed a method to rapidly identify them within any set of chemicals. This can help policymakers and manufacturers to rapidly spot possible chemicals of attention and take appropriate action.”

Dr. Jane Muncke, co-author, Food Packaging Forum Foundation said: “Our research shows just how little is known about so many of the chemicals consumers are exposed to everyday through the food packaging they buy. Today’s regulatory approaches in Europe and North America look at each chemical individually, however this is inefficient and does not sufficiently protect consumers. We are proposing an evidence-based grouping approach decision makers can already consumption now until the correct testing methods and testing data have become available.”

Albert Anguera Sempere, co-author, Food Packaging Forum Foundation said: “Our new FCCgroup app makes it easy and quick to anyone to screen a set of chemicals and find out which might be hazardous and an avoidable risk to consumer health. This can especially help companies stay ahead of future legal restrictions, prevent litigation, and better protect their customers.”