The Food Contact Chemicals Priority (FCCprio) List is the most comprehensive attempt yet to systematically identify and prioritize food contact chemicals (FCCs) for phase-out and avoidance based on their hazard properties and evidence for human exposure. Food Packaging Forum (FPF) researchers combined publicly available harmonized hazard classifications from organizations including the European Chemicals Agency, the US Environmental Protection Agency, Japanese GHS, and others, with exposure data from FPFs own FCCmigex and FCChumon datasets against all 15,159 known FCCs to create a tiered hazard list. A detailed description of the methodology is available on Zenodo.
In total, 1,222 FCCs were identified as hazardous and placed on the FCCprio List and internally ranked based on their relevance for human exposure from FCMs. To be on the list the chemical has been found to have at least one human health hazard of concern: persistence, bioaccumulation, mobility, carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, reproductive toxicity, specific-target-organ toxicity after repeated exposure, or endocrine disruption.
Each prioritized chemical was then mapped to human-exposure evidence and sorted into four tiers (Figure 1). Tier 1 (94 chemicals) includes substances with the strongest exposure evidence, having been found to migrate from food contact materials (FCMs) and detected in humans through national biomonitoring programs. The tier is dominated by well-studied groups such as ortho-phthalate plasticizers, certain metals/metalloids (e.g., lead, cadmium), and many per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Tiers 2–4 include a further 1,128 substances with decreasing evidence for exposure, i.e. evidence for migration from, presence in or potential use in FCMs.
Beyond the priority list, the researchers identified another 1,173 FCCs that may warrant concern because of environmental hazards or provisional toxicity flags. Strikingly, no harmonized hazard information was found for about 81% of all known FCCs (12,317 substances). Underscoring the size of the data gap facing regulators, brands, and consumers (FPF reported).
The FCCprio List is freely available on Zenodo as an Excel file and will be updated as new hazard classifications or exposure studies emerge. The list already feeds into the UP Scorecard, helping companies avoid chemicals of concern in packaging design. Stakeholders are invited to use the database, identify missing data, and support further research so that future iterations can close the knowledge gap and drive safer food contact materials.
Read more
Wiesinger, H., et al. (2025). “Food Contact Chemicals Priority (FCCprio) List.” Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14881617
Food Packaging Forum. (2025). “FCCPrio”
