News
The Food Packaging Forum reports on recent developments across the food packaging and health field.
January 19, 2022
Food Packaging Forum (FPF) comments on EU draft regulation for recycled plastics FCMs; exemptions for the risk assessment of “incidental contamination” and for pre-market assessment of novel technologies likely to increase hazardous chemical exposure for the general public
Reading time: 2 minutes
January 19, 2022
US state of Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) publishes food packaging chemicals of high concern list; mandated by state legislation and limited to 10 chemicals; DEP postpones ban on PFAS in food packaging originally meant to begin in 2022; phthalate ban went into effect January 1, 2022
Reading time: 2 minutes
January 18, 2022
Peer-reviewed study finds pollution from synthetic chemical production and plastics is now altering planetary systems vital to human survival; recommends implementing cap on chemical production and release similar to greenhouse gases
Reading time: 3 minutes
January 18, 2022
UK Parliamentary Committee plans to hold session to “scrutinize the ways in which the UK Government might reach its own target of eliminating all ‘avoidable’ plastic waste by 2042”; session to be streamed live
Reading time: 0 minutes
January 18, 2022
Researchers from several European and Chinese institutions develop methods to explore chemicals in food contact materials (FCMs); report styrene migration from different polystyrene FCMs into several food matrices; detect photoinitiators in paper FCMs and chlorinated paraffins in green tea and its packaging; find irradiation treatment of metalized polypropylene to reduce migration of tested chemicals
Reading time: 7 minutes
January 17, 2022
European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) adds four chemicals to the Candidate List of substances of very high concern (SVHC); two of the substances are known to be used in food contact applications; obligates producers and suppliers to provide safety information and to notify ECHA
Reading time: 1 minute
January 13, 2022
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) releases report outlining the goals, considerations, and trade-offs when designing a more ‘sustainable’ plastic product; encourages transparency in chemical composition and manufacturing processes through the supply chain
Reading time: 2 minutes
January 12, 2022
Letter from the US House Oversight and Reform Committee to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asks what steps FDA is taking to evaluate human health effects from, or to ban, phthalates in food packaging and processing materials
Reading time: 1 minute
January 12, 2022
Ghana National Plastic Action Partnership publishes roadmap to reduce plastic use and pollution in the country; includes 11 case studies of projects already underway; outlines strategies for both public and private institutions to contribute to the vision
Reading time: 2 minutes
January 11, 2022
Two studies applied computational methods to screen food contact chemicals (FCCs) for carcinogenic properties or interaction with 31 nuclear receptors; one identifies 44 potential carcinogens among 1623 assessed FCCs; other finds more than half of 8091 screened FCCs with high binding affinity for several nuclear receptors
Topics: endocrine disruptor, risk assessment
Reading time: 3 minutes
