The 7th Food Packaging Forum (FPF) workshop on “Improving the chemical safety of food contact articles: Accelerating science and innovation” took place on October 24, 2019, in Zurich, Switzerland. The opening talk by Thomas Backhaus from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, who is also a member of the FPF’s foundation board, presented a summary of FPF’s work in the past year. Backhaus reminded participants that the FPF’s mission is to enable “stakeholders to generate knowledge based on scientific facts, so they can make changes that result in a better protection of public and environmental health.” In line with this, FPF worked to provide daily news and summaries of research articles, delivered 26 webinars and presentations at scientific meetings, including the Plastic Health Summit, organized its own events and webinars, and continued to develop and lead scientific research projects.
The highlights for the organization within the last year included FPF’s participation in preparing and running the UNWRAPPED translational conference in California, which brought together “120 international scientists, advocates, progressive industry, and communicators” to share knowledge and experience while discussing “the latest science regarding food packaging and human health” (FPF reported). Further, FPF and its international partners have successfully finalized the 2-year project Hazardous Chemicals in Plastic Packaging (HCPP), concluded by a final event held in September 2019 in Gothenburg, Sweden. Currently, FPF is continuing to work on the Food Contact Chemicals and Human Health (FCCH) project, which started in August 2018 and will continue to run through 2020. In December 2018, a protocol for systematic mapping of literature on chemicals migratable or extractable from food contact materials and articles was published within the project.
Read more
Thomas Backhaus (October 24, 2019). “Improving the chemical safety of food contact articles.” (YouTube; pdf)
