On February 16, 2016 the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) published the protocol of the 14th meeting of its commission on contaminants and other substances of concern in the food chain. The BfR-commission held their last meeting on May 20, 2015 and discussed, among other topics, polyfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in food packaging. Xenia Trier from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) reported on PFCs in paper and board packaging and the issues of analytical identification and limited availability of toxicological data encountered with many of these substances. Ms. Trier presented a DTU project employing quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) to predict toxic in vitro effects of known chemicals in food packaging. Further, DTU is developing analytical methods to simultaneously identify and analyze a number of PFCs in food packaging. The results of these projects shall provide recommendations for risk management of PFCs. The BfR-commission concluded that the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) should be approached for the safety assessment of PFCs in food packaging.

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BfR (February 16, 2016). “14. Sitzung der BfR-Kommission für Kontaminanten und andere gesundheitlich unerwünschte Stoffe in der Lebensmittelkette.(pdf; in German)

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