Abstract
BACKGROUND: Food contact articles (FCAs) are manufactured from food contact materials (FCMs) that include plastics, paper, metal, glass, and printing inks. Chemicals can migrate from FCAs into food during storage, processing, and transportation. Food contact materials’ safety is evaluated using chemical risk assessment (RA). Several challenges to the RA of FCAs exist. OBJECTIVES: We review regulatory requirements for RA of FCMs in the United States and Europe, identify gaps in RA, and highlight opportunities for improving the protection of public health. We intend to initiate a discussion in the wider scientific community to enhance the safety of food contact articles. DISCUSSION: Based on our evaluation of the evidence, we conclude that current regulations are insufficient for addressing chemical exposures from FCAs. RA currently focuses on monomers and additives used in the manufacture of products, but it does not cover all substances formed in the production processes. Several factors hamper effective RA for many FCMs, including a lack of information on chemical identity, inadequate assessment of hazardous properties, and missing exposure data. Companies make decisions about the safety of some food contact chemicals (FCCs) without review by public authorities. Some chemical migration limits cannot be enforced because analytical standards are unavailable. CONCLUSION: We think that exposures to hazardous substances migrating from FCAs require more attention. We recommend a) limiting the number and types of chemicals authorized for manufacture and b) developing novel approaches for assessing the safety of chemicals in FCAs, including unidentified chemicals that form during or after production.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Artikelnummer | 095001 |
| Tidsskrift | Environmental Health Perspectives |
| Vol/bind | 125 |
| Udgave nummer | 9 |
| ISSN | 0091-6765 |
| DOI |
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| Status | Udgivet - 2017 |
| Udgivet eksternt | Ja |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:J.M. and B.G. are full-time Food Packaging Forum (FPF) employees; neither was restricted in any way by FPF in performing this work. T.B., J.P.M., X.T., and M.S. are members of FPF’s foundation board. They receive no financial compensation from FPF. All other authors are members of FPF’s SAB and receive no financial compensation from FPF. All authors’ travel and accommodation costs for a two-day meeting for drafting this manuscript were covered by FPF. FPF is a charity funded by unconditional donations and governed by an independent foundation board. Donors have no influence on FPF’s work. M.V.M. co-authored food additive petitions to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requesting the agency remove its approval of several food contact substances, receiving financial compensation for this work from the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Defense Fund. A.M.S. declares that Valspar has given Tufts University some unrestricted funds for A.M.S.’s lab that were used to pay a technician and run bioassays to determine whether their materials are estrogenic. The unrestricted fund format, a gift, was chosen so that the lab will be totally free from Valspar’s control.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, Public Health Services, US Dept of Health and Human Services. All rights reserved.