When you check the sell-by date on your yogurt or canned tuna, you’re likely not considering the hazardous chemicals that might be seeping from the packaging into your food. A groundbreaking study has uncovered that out of over 15,000 chemicals used in food packaging, 1,222 pose serious health risks, including cancer and reproductive harm. Even more alarming, 87 percent or more than 13,200 lack enough accessible information to estimate their risks.
The study, led by the Food Packaging Forum Foundation and published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology highlights a critical gap in public knowledge about the safety of chemicals that come into contact with our food. Jane Muncke, managing director of the foundation, describes this lack of information as “the elephant in the room.” Consumers often assume that regulators have thoroughly tested these chemicals, but the reality is far from reassuring.
Identifying the most problematic chemicals
The research team analyzed a comprehensive list of chemicals used in food processing or packaging, approved by regulators in various countries or identified in studies. They focused on data from governmental and regulatory agencies linking chemicals to human health hazards such as cancer, reproductive harm, or the ability to concentrate in the body. This approach yielded a priority list of 1,222 chemicals ranked into four tiers based on the evidence of human exposure from food-contact materials.
The highest priority, Tier 1 includes 94 chemicals known to seep into food and detected in breast milk, blood, or other human samples. These include PFAS “forever chemicals” which make food wrappers grease- or water-resistant; styrene a likely carcinogen used in takeout packages and dairy containers; phthalates hormone-disrupting chemicals added to plastics; and bisphenol A a well-known endocrine disruptor found in hard plastics and can linings.
The next level of concern: Tier 2 chemicals
The next highest priority list, Tier 2 includes an additional 264 hazardous chemicals that leach into food but have not yet been detected in biomonitoring studies. While these chemicals may not have been found in human samples, their potential to migrate into food raises significant concerns about long-term exposure.
Protecting consumers from hazardous chemicals
Experts from the Food Packaging Forum suggest several steps regulators can take to reduce people’s exposure to harmful chemicals in food-contact materials. These recommendations include moving away from evaluating one chemical at a time, introducing a “mixture allocation factor” to account for combined effects, and regulating chemicals in groups with similar structures and properties. Additionally, they advocate for modifying material safety rules to ensure that what escapes from products is safe under different use conditions and expanding screening of toxicity to include chronic disease outcomes.
Determining if chemicals or materials like glass or stainless steel classified as inert leach into food is also crucial. If they don’t leach, they’re not a priority for in-depth chemical analysis. Inert materials that can be reused should be the policy goal, according to the experts.
Special concerns for babies
Jane Muncke expresses particular concern about babies’ exposure to plastic chemicals in pouches that hold juices and pureed food. Earlier this year, her team found evidence that more than 330 chemicals leach from these pouches, including nearly 80 known to be hazardous. The greater volume of chemicals in baby food is due to the higher ratio of packaging to food in small serving sizes, and the sterilization process drives chemicals to migrate and forms microplastics.
Several peer-reviewed studies have also found chemicals, including non-intentionally added substances (NIAS), in baby food packaged in pouches. These NIAS, which lack adequate information to assess risk, are believed to be impurities and raw materials from producing plastic. Infants may be constantly exposed to NIAS via consuming pouched food products, according to the studies.
The urgent need for more research
For the 87 percent of chemicals that lack hazard data, the primary issue is the lack of public information. This delay in regulatory action occurs because governments and independent scientists must first figure out which chemicals are safe. Helene Wiesinger, a chemist and Food Packaging Forum scientific officer, believes a product or chemical should not be allowed on the market until a company can prove that it’s safe.
At a minimum, chemicals that have structural similarities with others known to be hazardous should be priorities for regulation. The paper argues that 70 percent of the more than 4,200 chemicals classified into priority groups, including PFAS, phthalates, and organophosphates, lack enough data to assess potential harms. Just because something isn’t yet known to be hazardous doesn’t mean it’s not hazardous, Wiesinger emphasizes. Time and again, chemicals found to present unreasonable risks are replaced with others that have similar properties and ultimately similar risks.
The study offers a practical and transparent roadmap for using the best available evidence to prioritize food-contact chemicals for regulation. However, more research is needed to determine which foods and chemical combinations result in more chemicals moving into food. The paper’s authors hope their work provides practical guidance on how to avoid the most obvious mistakes in regulating these hazardous chemicals.
