Reducing Chemical Migration in Food-Contact Materials
Reducing Chemical Migration in Food-Contact Materials
Due primarily to consumer demand, health concerns represent the largest force driving innovation within the food-packaging industry today, Hotchkiss says. "I believe the safety issues will continue to grow, and those who can assure consumers that they are concerned about it and are doing what they can to address it will be rewarded in the marketplace," he says. "Those that don't will be punished in the marketplace."
People around the world are familiar with bisphenol A (BPA) and concerns about its migration into food and drink from plastic bottles, metal cans, and other consumer products. To date U.S. and European authorities have concluded, based on the available evidence, that the levels of BPA that currently occur in foods are safe for all consumers. Other scientists suggest the experimental evidence for BPA's adverse health effects is strong enough to warrant removing the chemical from food-use applications as a precaution. In recent years U.S. manufacturers voluntarily abandoned the use of BPA in baby bottles, sippy cups, and infant-formula packaging, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) formally ended its authorizations of these uses thereafter.
Beyond our borders, several other countries have banned BPA from some infant products, including Canada, the European Union, South Africa, China, Malaysia, Argentina, Brazil, and Ecuador. France went even further with its recently implemented ban of BPA from all packaging, containers, and utensils that come into contact with food.
The BPA debate illuminates many of the challenges involved in stemming chemical migration. As France recognized with its ban, prohibitions for baby products alone don't address the fact that BPA exists in countless consumer products and food-packaging materials to which infants and expectant mothers, among other susceptible populations, may still be exposed—such as metal beverage and food cans, which are often lined with BPA-based epoxy resins.
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BPA is just one of many known or suspected endocrine disruptors commonly found in food packaging that can migrate into food and drink. Furthermore, endocrine disruptors from plastics are far from the only cla ss of potentially harmful chemicals that can leach into food or drink from food packaging; depending on factors including temperature, storage time, and physicochemical properties, a wide variety of compounds—including components of coatings and films, adhesives and glues, and inks and pigments—can migrate from packaging materials.
For these reasons, Laura Vandenberg, an assistant professor of environmental health at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, believes most existing bans on BPA do little to ensure food safety. "This was a very empty victory, I think, to focus on BPA and baby bottles," she says.
The Winding Path of Chemical Replacement
Due primarily to consumer demand, health concerns represent the largest force driving innovation within the food-packaging industry today, Hotchkiss says. "I believe the safety issues will continue to grow, and those who can assure consumers that they are concerned about it and are doing what they can to address it will be rewarded in the marketplace," he says. "Those that don't will be punished in the marketplace."
People around the world are familiar with bisphenol A (BPA) and concerns about its migration into food and drink from plastic bottles, metal cans, and other consumer products. To date U.S. and European authorities have concluded, based on the available evidence, that the levels of BPA that currently occur in foods are safe for all consumers. Other scientists suggest the experimental evidence for BPA's adverse health effects is strong enough to warrant removing the chemical from food-use applications as a precaution. In recent years U.S. manufacturers voluntarily abandoned the use of BPA in baby bottles, sippy cups, and infant-formula packaging, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) formally ended its authorizations of these uses thereafter.
Beyond our borders, several other countries have banned BPA from some infant products, including Canada, the European Union, South Africa, China, Malaysia, Argentina, Brazil, and Ecuador. France went even further with its recently implemented ban of BPA from all packaging, containers, and utensils that come into contact with food.
The BPA debate illuminates many of the challenges involved in stemming chemical migration. As France recognized with its ban, prohibitions for baby products alone don't address the fact that BPA exists in countless consumer products and food-packaging materials to which infants and expectant mothers, among other susceptible populations, may still be exposed—such as metal beverage and food cans, which are often lined with BPA-based epoxy resins.
(Enlarge Image)
BPA is just one of many known or suspected endocrine disruptors commonly found in food packaging that can migrate into food and drink. Furthermore, endocrine disruptors from plastics are far from the only cla ss of potentially harmful chemicals that can leach into food or drink from food packaging; depending on factors including temperature, storage time, and physicochemical properties, a wide variety of compounds—including components of coatings and films, adhesives and glues, and inks and pigments—can migrate from packaging materials.
For these reasons, Laura Vandenberg, an assistant professor of environmental health at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, believes most existing bans on BPA do little to ensure food safety. "This was a very empty victory, I think, to focus on BPA and baby bottles," she says.
