On June 12-14, 2019, the UNWRAPPED Conference took place in Scotts Valley, California, U.S. The event brought together 120 scientists, advocates, progressive industry, and communicators from around the world to share knowledge and experience on chemicals in food packaging. Participants joined from Taiwan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines, China, Europe, and the U.S. The event aimed “to empower scientists, activists, health providers, and corporate leaders to protect public health and the environment from food packaging chemicals and plastics,” using the most current scientific understanding.
On the first day, scientists from the Food Packaging Forum and leading universities presented on a range of topics related to materials and chemicals in food packaging, food contact chemicals and their relevance to human health, and the state of the science regarding microplastics. The second day included presentations from advocacy groups working on issues surrounding the circular economy, regulatory challenges, and tools for assessing the impacts of food packaging. A set of talks also summarized recent advocacy work in China, Southeast Asia, the U.S., and Europe. Aiming to bring the insights from these different stakeholder groups together, the conference culminated in a set of strategy sessions to identify synergies and develop scientifically supported advocacy and research goals to guide future work. Presentations given during the conference were recorded and are now publicly available online for viewing.
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UNWRAPPED (June 2019). “UNWRAPPED Conference.”
