On October 4, 2018, the Food Packaging Forum (FPF) held its sixth public workshop in Zurich, Switzerland, themed “Predicting the safety of food contact articles: New science and digital opportunities.” Participants from the food industry, chemical companies, packaging manufacturers, trade associations, retailers, environmental, health and consumer organizations, testing laboratories, academia, authorities, and consultancies, exchanged views on the chemical safety of food contact materials (FCMs) and articles (FCAs) and shared recent scientific findings and challenges.
The morning sessions presented a vision for safer FCAs and evidence of toxic chemicals in plastics (FPF reported), as well as predictive toxicology, computational methodology, and green chemistry approaches to improving the safe use of chemicals (FPF reported). The afternoon session opened with philosophical considerations on science-based decision-making (FPF reported) and continued with a podium on “Digital opportunities for FCM safety.” Five speakers with different backgrounds addressed challenges in mineral oils analysis, digital tools for supply chain communication, high-throughput methods for estimating exposure to food contact substances, consumer demands, and retailers’ role in managing hazardous chemicals in food packaging and other products (FPF reported). The speakers then answered questions from the audience and shared further insights during a joint podium discussion.
The video recordings and presentation slides of the workshop are now available online.
Next year’s workshop will take place on October 24, 2019, in Zurich, Switzerland.
