Scientists led by Camille Streel from the research institute Sciensano, Brussels, Belgium, present the SILIFOOD tool, designed to support the safety assessment of chemicals in food contact materials (FCMs) when toxicological data are limited or missing. In their article published on January 2, 2026, in the NAM Journal, the authors describe the development of the tool and its testing on four non-evaluated substances migrating from FCMs, including non-plastic food contact chemicals and non-intentionally added substances (NIAS).
To develop SILIFOOD, the researchers identified and curated relevant regulatory and toxicological databases for FCMs, building on the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) Rapid Assessment of Contaminant Exposure (RACE) tool (FPF reported). They used VEGAHUB to identify (quantitative) structure-activity relationship [(Q)SAR] models that predict selected toxicological endpoints relevant to FCM risk assessment. These include genotoxicity, carcinogenicity, reproductive and developmental toxicity, subchronic toxicity, bioaccumulation potential, and endocrine activity. In addition, models were selected to assign chemicals to their Cramer class, enabling application of the Threshold of Toxicological Concern (TTC), a tool that can be used for prioritizing chemicals in need of hazard assessment (FPF reported). The curated data sources and in silico predictions were then integrated into an automated, stand‑alone software that is freely available within the VEGAHUB platform.
Streel and co-authors tested and exemplified the application of SILIFOOD using four chemicals: perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS, CAS 1763–23–1), diisobutyl phthalate (DiBP, CAS 84–69–5), 2,4-di‑tert-butylphenol (2,4-DtBP, CAS 96–76–4) and 2-isopropylthioxanthone (ITX, CAS 5495–84–1). The authors report that SILIFOOD enables much faster and more efficient collection of toxicity data compared with manual approaches, while providing risk assessments that are equally or more protective. A key advantage of the tool is the integration of (Q)SAR models, which help fill data gaps when hazard information is missing.
A current limitation of SILIFOOD is that it can process only one chemical at a time. For better approximations of risk assessments, the authors recommend combining SILIFOOD (for hazard estimation) with VERMEER FCM to estimate chemical migration from FCMs (FPF reported).
Reference
Streel, C. et al. (2026). “SILIFOOD: a tool to support the risk assessment of non-evaluated food contact material substances.” NAM Journal. DOI: 10.1016/j.namjnl.2025.100072
