Following France’s example, Spain’s Ministry for Ecological Transition is drafting a decree to ban the sale of produce wrapped in plastic by 2023; wants to discourage sales of drinks in single-use plastic bottles by encouraging the installation of drinking fountains and bottle reuse systems
French retailers to limit mineral oils in food
E.Leclerc and Lidl France take action against contamination of their own-brand food products with mineral oils; restrict MOAH to untraceable amounts and introduce limit values for MOSH
Resorcinol inclusion in CoRAP criticized
Guest column in Chemical Watch criticizes the inclusion of resorcinol in the Community Rolling Action Plan (CoRAP) for 2019-2021 to be assessed by France due to potential thyroid effects; points out to previously concluded evaluation by Finland, lack of remaining data gaps or new information to justify re-evaluation
Flexible plastic packaging expected to grow
Market research by the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies (PMMI) estimates 3,271 billion packaging units sold in 2018, led by flexible plastics and PET bottles; expects both material types to also see greatest increases by 2023
FPF Workshop 2019: Perspectives on innovations
Innovations improving the safety of food contact articles discussed during afternoon session; panel with guests from academia, non-profit organizations, start-ups and industry
EFSA publishes guidance on chemical grouping for risk assessments
Final version of European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) guidance prioritizes hazard-driven criteria for grouping chemicals; supports human health risk assessments of combined chemical exposures; recommends relying on mechanistic information on toxicity within a weight-of-evidence approach
Guide to PFAS-free foodservice ware
BizNGO network publishes fact sheet on hazards of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, recommendations on purchasing PFAS-free foodservice ware
Healthy ingredients for a circular economy
European Bioplastics hosts 10th annual conference in Berlin, Germany; circular economy, materials and products, as well as sustainable land use discussed
More retailers commit to safer chemicals
Non-profit organization Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families publishes second annual ranking of retailers’ safer chemicals programs; 10 out of 30 retailers take adequate action on toxic chemicals
Opinion: Consumers want healthy food
Removing unwanted ingredients such as BPA from food products is good, however highly processed foods remain the less favorable diet option compared to fresh, unprocessed foods