News
The Food Packaging Forum reports on recent developments across the food packaging and health field.
January 8, 2024
Maintains criteria that all packaging must be recyclable; introduces requirement for separate waste collection; tasks Commission with preparing a report on substances of concern and their impact on recycling, reuse, and chemical safety
Reading time: 2 minutes
January 4, 2024
Scientists assessed polyethylene terephthalate (PET) trays with different amounts of recycled content and produced by two different extrusion processes; find cyclic oligomer migration increases with recycled content amount, differs between the two processes; nontargeted screening identifies intentional and non-intentional substances, including marker compounds for recycled PET
Reading time: 3 minutes
January 2, 2024
Scientists detect two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in plastic food storage bags; study assesses PFAS in 119 single-use food packaging and tableware samples from around the world and detectes PFAS in 54%; two reviews raise awareness of PFAS impact on human liver health and safety issues connected with the PFAS substitutes - polyfluoroalkyl phosphate esters (PAPs); scientist calls for more research to assess combined environmental effect of microplastics and PFAS
Reading time: 7 minutes
December 7, 2023
Three US federal agencies publish draft strategy on food loss and waste prevention; goal to reduce loss and waste by 50% by 2030; includes concerns around physical and chemical contamination of organic waste from packaging; planned investments in “innovative” materials; draft strategy open for comment through January 4, 2024
Topics: food waste, USA
Reading time: 2 minutes
December 6, 2023
Over fifty experts researching the health effects of chemical exposures sign letter to German authorities expressing concerns about recent actions concerning bisphenol regulation in Europe; encourage resubmission of bisphenol restriction proposal and for the country to once again take the lead on regulatory action regarding endocrine disrupting chemicals in Europe
Reading time: 2 minutes
December 5, 2023
Daily Mail reports on environmental campaigners call to action for more sustainable beverage packaging; based on Zero Waste Europe report; says beverage packaging sector will not reach climate targets without deposit return schemes
Reading time: 2 minutes
November 29, 2023
Meeting in Nairobi ends with no consensus on intersessional work needed before next meeting; Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty represented by 37 scientists, including team members from the Food Packaging Forum; expanded and revised version of Zero Draft based on member state inputs to be published by December 31, 2023; next round of negotiations to take place in Ottawa, Canada on April 21 – 30, 2024
Reading time: 4 minutes
November 29, 2023
New version of Understanding Packaging (UP) Scorecard published; allows users to create a private account, make and save product portfolios, compare entire business units, and features a more robust scoring system for chemicals of concern that considers the food or beverage being served
Reading time: 2 minutes
November 28, 2023
Justice Angela Furlanetto deemed the Canadian Environment and Climate Change Department’s classification of manufactured plastics products as toxic unconstitutional; the federal government is appealing the decision; single use plastics ban is still in effect
Reading time: 1 minute
November 28, 2023
Includes ban on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and bisphenol A in food packaging and general packaging reduction targets; decreases reuse obligations
Reading time: 3 minutes
