News
The Food Packaging Forum reports on recent developments across the food packaging and health field.
August 23, 2022
United States Senate unanimously passes the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act, Recycling and Composting Accountability Act; both receive wide support from industry and environmental groups; must pass House of Representatives to become national policy
Reading time: 3 minutes
August 23, 2022
Industry associations report recycling rates of packaging materials in Europe; average collection rate of glass bottles and jars hit 80% in 2020; paper packaging recycling over 80%; paper recycling rates close to theoretical maximum; plastic recycling has not increased despite increased demand by beverage companies; two-thirds of plastic-packaging pledges in Europe failed, supporting the change away from single-use likely necessary
Reading time: 5 minutes
August 19, 2022
Scoping review assesses state-of-the-art of paper and cardboard food packaging safety assessment; maps sample preparation approaches, challenges, and factors influencing chemical migration; provides guidance to develop and evaluate standardized sample preparation methods
Reading time: 4 minutes
August 17, 2022
Scientists explore the impact of long-term oral exposure of mammals to food packaging leachates on gut microbiome diversity, composition, and metabolites; report changes in gut microbiota and metabolites mainly associated with oxidative stress, immunity, and inflammatory responses
Topics: migration, toxicity testing
Reading time: 2 minutes
August 16, 2022
Scientists establish organophosphate esters (OPEs) baseline concentration in foodstuff across China and investigate the contamination sources; report extensive contamination of Chinese foodstuff with OPEs; uncover food packaging as source of these OPEs
Reading time: 3 minutes
August 11, 2022
Two studies analyze polyethylene terephthalate (PET) chemicals; identify several volatile chemicals present in and migrating from new PET bottles as well as from bottles commercially available in Japan; develop online method for quantifying non-intentionally added substances (NIAS)
Reading time: 4 minutes
August 10, 2022
Scientists assess styrene levels in polystyrene food packaging, migration into refrigerated dairy products, in 50% ethanol, as well as factors influencing migration; report styrene migration of 5 to 30 µg/kg food at the best before date; find food contact area, temperature and time rather than fat content influence styrene migration
Reading time: 3 minutes
August 10, 2022
National Health Commission publishes updated paper and board food contact material (FCM) standard; includes changes to migration testing protocol; new bamboo and wood FCM standard
Reading time: 1 minute
August 9, 2022
New certification scheme by AIMPLAS tests chemical safety of reusable plastic food packaging prior to consumer use, including non-intentionally added substances (NIAS); tests physical characteristics after five dishwasher cycles
Reading time: 1 minute
August 8, 2022
Zero Waste Europe, CHEMTrust, and HEAL launch website for toxic free food packaging campaign; campaign focuses on the revision of the EU food contact materials law
Reading time: 1 minute
