On March 24, 2022, Consumer Reports published an article investigating the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in food packaging including a set of new test results of packaging items from 24 US fast food and grocery chains. The organization found organic fluorine, used analytically to identify the presence of PFAS, in more than half of the food packaging tested. Because of the complex supply chains involved and common presence of PFAS in many upstream processes, it is difficult for packaging manufacturers to completely avoid PFAS in their products. To consider this, Consumer Reports used 20 ppm organic fluorine as the threshold to measure intentionally versus unintentionally added PFAS. Nearly a third of the packaging products (37) tested contained organic fluorine levels over 20 ppm, and 22 products were found with levels over 100 ppm. Following the investigation, several food and grocery chains have committed, or recommitted, to changing their packaging practices to avoid intentionally added PFAS.
For the study, Consumer Reports tested 118 food packaging products for organic flourine including paper bags for french fries or cookies, hamburger wrappers, and molded fiber salad bowls. In 50 products the researchers also tested for a set of 30 specific PFAS compounds, which they described as a standard industry and regulatory test. These 30 compounds together accounted for less than 1% of the total organic fluorine in the analyzed samples. Two PFAS compounds that are no longer produced in the US due to safety concerns were also detected.
PFAS can transfer from packaging into food and then by consumption of contaminated food also into the human body. Research on multiple PFAS have found they can negatively affect health across different endpoints (FPF reported, also here and here). To reduce PFAS exposure, Consumer Reports’ suggestions include limiting the consumption of take-out food and, when buying it, to “favor retailers that have pledged to reduce PFAS.” The investigators found that “while their levels are not zero, PFAS levels in food packaging at those retailers tend to be somewhat lower. And giving them your business supports efforts to address the problem.” The Food Packaging Forum created a food brand and retailer initiatives dashboard to track the commitments companies make about chemical content, recycling goals, and other sustainability-related food packaging changes.
In the week after the investigation was published, several of the audited restaurant and retailer brands pledged to make changes to their packaging. Restaurant Brands International, which owns Burger King, Tim Horton’s, and Popeyes, announced it will phase out PFAS globally by 2025. Grocery store Stop & Shop removed a packaging product from its shelves after being notified by Consumer Reports that it contained over 100 ppm organic fluorine. Independently, in an announcement about switching to reusables, Starbucks Coffee Company said it will phase out PFAS in the US by the end of 2022 and globally by the end of 2023.
In a paper published on March 21, 2022, in the journal Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, Shadrack Barnabas and co-authors compared the PFAS compounds included in scientific literature and patent documents with “two of the largest publicly available lists of PFAS molecules” from the EPA and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The researchers found that “the overlap between the lists and the data extracted from scientific documents and patents is lower than expected.” The large number of PFAS molecules available supports the understanding that when regulated one at a time, manufacturers may switch to another, less well-studied compound. And many of the replacements for PFAS have been found to have little to no publicly available hazard information, as reported for PFAS in paper and board food packaging by the OECD in February 2022 (FPF reported). Support has been growing across various stakeholder groups in North America and the EU to ban or control all PFAS as a class (FPF reported, also here and here).
References
Kevin Loria (March 24, 2022). “Dangerous PFAS Chemicals Are in Your Food Packaging.” Consumer Reports
Restaurant Brands International (March 24, 2022). “Packaging & Recycling.”
Starbucks (March 15, 2022). “Starbucks Innovates, Tests and Learns from Store Partners to Achieve Waste Goals.”
Barnabas, S.J., et al. (March 21, 2022). “Extracting and comparing PFAS from literature and patent documents using open access chemistry toolkits.” Theoretical and Computational Chemistry. DOI: 10.26434/chemrxiv-2022-nmnnd
Read more
Laura Reiley (March 24, 2022). “Major restaurant chains commit to eliminating ‘forever chemicals’.” The Washington Post
Clelia Oziel (March 24, 2022). “EU PFAS restriction proposal will not incorporate ‘essential use’.” Chemical Watch
State of California (February 25, 2022). “Notice to Interested Parties Chemical Listed Effective February 25, 2022 As Known to the State of California to Cause Cancer: Perfluorooctanoic Acid.” OEHHA
