News
The Food Packaging Forum reports on recent developments across the food packaging and health field.
May 17, 2021
European Commission announces adoption of action plan towards zero pollution for air, water, and soil; includes targets to by 2030 reduce plastic litter at sea by 50%, microplastics release into environment by 30%, residual municipal solid waste by 50%; will revise air and water quality standards, review majority of EU waste laws, increase enforcement
Topics: European Commission, non-toxic strategy
Reading time: 1 minute
May 12, 2021
Systematic scoping review assesses the research literature covering plastic’s effects on human health, the environment, and food security/economics through the entire food system from 2000 through 2018; includes over 3,300 studies; found majority of previous research focused on food security/economics; identified gaps related to studies on the effect of plastics on human health, meta-analyses, and research within low-income nations
Reading time: 2 minutes
May 11, 2021
Article discusses the challenges of recycling TetraPak food and drink containers due to the composite of paper, plastic, and aluminum; few recycling facilities can handle the containers; only 16% of beverage cartons recycled in the US; calls for legislators to incentivize use of more recyclable containers
Reading time: 0 minutes
May 11, 2021
Recent publication in peer-reviewed journal Water measures microplastic content in well water at each stage of the bottling process to track microplastic sources; microplastics introduced at all steps of bottling process with greatest increase at capping
Topics: microplastics
Reading time: 0 minutes
May 10, 2021
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) releases new assessment of titanium dioxide as a food additive, could not rule out genotoxicity; change in opinion from last assessment in 2016; announcement does not affect food contact materials
Reading time: 2 minutes
May 10, 2021
Feature article provides an overview of the current research surrounding the study of microplastics and nanoplastics, potential effects on human and environmental health, and concerns for the future
Reading time: 2 minutes
May 7, 2021
The Recycling Partnership and SYSTEMIQ launch Plastic IQ, a free tool to help US companies make their plastic packaging strategy more sustainable; tool assesses current packaging impacts from consumption through end-of-life, builds customizable action plans, and compares “circularity of packaging strategy against industry best practices”
Topics: circular economy, plastics
Reading time: 1 minute
May 6, 2021
Scientific opinion published in Environmental Science and Technology argues United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) should define terminology around plastic pollution; argues “marine plastic” label misleading; “pollution” a better term than “littler”, “debris”, or “waste”; microplastics should be considered together with macroplastics
Reading time: 0 minutes
May 6, 2021
Scientists compile matrix to compare the sustainability impacts of fossil carbon-based with bio-based plastics in the food packaging value chain; apply Complex Value Optimization for Resource Recovery (CVORR) base-line analysis, social, economic, environmental, technical metrics; study highlights knowledge gaps; discusses land-use change, chemical migration, eco-labels, biodegradability standards
Topics: bioplastics, plastics
Reading time: 5 minutes
May 5, 2021
European Commission (EC) releases roadmap for revision of the Regulation on hazard classification, labelling and packaging of chemicals (CLP); aims to outline which regulatory and non-regulatory changes to consider in cost-benefit analyses during forthcoming impact assessment; wants to explore opportunities to use new technological tools; accepting public comment until June 1, 2021
Reading time: 1 minute
