In a report published on August 18, 2022, the Food Packaging Forum (FPF) describes the application of a general scoring framework for chemical migration from food packaging items into selected food types. The framework was developed within a revision of the packaging fact sheets (in German), published by the Association of the Swiss Organic Agriculture Organisations (Bio Suisse). These fact sheets also provide scoring for five additional categories (product protection, consumer acceptance, handling and additional use, waste and recycling, and environmental impact).
The new migration framework combines three approaches that allow scoring of chemical migration from a packaging item into a known food or beverage type. First, the chemical complexity of food packaging materials and the presence of chemicals of concern are estimated based on the Food Contact Chemicals Database (FCCdb) and the Database on Migrating and Extractable Food Contact Chemicals (FCCmigex). In a second step, the inertness of a packaging material is addressed using results from an expert survey. Finally, an evaluation scheme is applied to consider typical food-packaging interactions for the seven common food types.
This scoring framework is publicly available and allows for the comparison of different packaging options in terms of chemical migration potential, which supports reducing consumer exposure to hazardous chemicals. Together with the other assessment categories, the fact sheets inform stakeholders about important sustainability and safety aspects to consider when comparing common food packaging options.
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Geueke B, Hennig K, Boucher JM, Muncke J (August 18, 2022) “Chemical migration from packaging into foods and beverages: A framework to evaluate different packaging options.” DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6992811
Bio Suisse (2022) “Ökologische Verpackungen, Verpackungsbeispiele“ (in German)
