News
The Food Packaging Forum reports on recent developments across the food packaging and health field.
August 6, 2021
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) releases guidance documents on the technical requirements to establish the presence of small particles in food products, and how to perform risk assessments of nanomaterials in the food chain; includes migration of particles from food contact materials; agency reports on outcomes from the public consultation period
Reading time: 3 minutes
August 5, 2021
House Bill 9147 would ban single-use plastic tableware within four years and drinking straws, stirrers, candy sticks, bags thinner than ten microns, and other small single-use plastics within one year; bill must now pass the country’s Senate in order to become law
Reading time: 2 minutes
August 4, 2021
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) updates their report on guidance for preventing transmission of COVID-19 within food businesses; states “data indicates that neither food nor food packaging is a pathway for the spread of viruses causing respiratory illnesses, including SARS-CoV-2”; update replaces guidance document from April 2020
Topics: coronavirus, FAO
Reading time: 1 minute
August 3, 2021
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) extends comment period for proposed reporting and recordkeeping requirements for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS); would require manufacturers that produced PFAS at anytime since 2011 to make a one-time report with information about uses, production volumes, disposal, exposures, and hazards; comments accepted until September 27, 2021
Reading time: 1 minute
August 3, 2021
US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) publishes draft toxicological profiles for six substances including several used in food contact: acetone, 3,3-dichlorobenzidine, and pentachlorophenol; ATSDR accepting comments until October 27, 2021
Topics: US
Reading time: 1 minute
August 2, 2021
Law firm Keller and Heckman publishes a summary of China’s recently approved uses of 19 materials and substances for food contact; includes three new food contact chemicals (FCCs), seven new resins, and expanded usage of nine other materials; three substances are in the Food Packaging Forum's food contact chemicals database as either a priority hazardous substance or substance of potential concern
Topics: china, regulation
Reading time: 1 minute
July 29, 2021
News agency reports advanced and chemical recycling projects from large multinational companies “flop”; projects launched in the last few years by Royal Dutch Shell, Unilever, and Delta Airlines to convert plastic waste into fuel reported to have all been dropped due to lack of economic viability
Topics: chemical recycling, recycling
Reading time: 0 minutes
July 29, 2021
Representative Jan Schakowsky introduces Food Chemical Reassessment Act of 2021 to the United States House of Representatives; the bill would require the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regularly review the chemicals used in foods, particularly those approved through the generally recognized as safe (GRAS) rule; would establish an Office of Food Safety Reassessment and reestablish a food advisory committee
Reading time: 2 minutes
July 29, 2021
Study investigates reproductive toxicity of environmental concentrations of polystyrene (PS) microplastics to male mice; further examines underlying molecular mechanism; study is first to find long-term PS microplastic exposure affects sperm quality and testosterone levels in mice
Reading time: 2 minutes
July 27, 2021
Scientific study uses non-targeted chemical analysis to provide an overview of chemicals migrating from 8 wine corks made of ethylene-vinyl acetate; identifies 50 compounds, 84% non-intentionally added substances (NIAS); finds one cork not suitable as food contact material
Reading time: 2 minutes
