On October 24, 2019, the non-governmental organization (NGO) CHEM Trust sent a letter to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) of the United Kingdom (UK) requesting information on how the FSA is handling the recently updated recommendations from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on tolerable intakes of the chemicals perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA; CAS 335-67-1) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS, CAS 1763-23-1) (FPF reported). CHEM Trust wrote that the UK has yet to revise the set tolerable daily intakes (TDI) for both PFOS and PFOA to reflect this updated scientific information. The country’s TDIs for these substances still reflect the values published in 2009, which CHEM Trust notes for PFOS are “already twice the value recommended by EFSA in its previous 2008 opinion (150 ng/kg bw/day), 10 times the value recommended by the Danish EPA in 2015 (30 ng/kg bw/day) and 15 times the value recommended by the US EPA in 2016 and Food Standards Australia New Zealand in 2017 (20 ng/kg bw/day).”
In addition, the NGO also asked about the use of newer PFAS and wants to know what the FSA is doing to “explore reduction measures for a better protection, including a ban on PFAS in paper and card food contact materials in the UK.” In October 2019, CHEM Trust published a briefing calling for regulation of PFAS chemicals as a group (FPF reported).
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Julie Schneider (October 30, 2019). “CHEM Trust urges UK Food Standards Agency to take action on PFAS chemical pollution.”
Luke Buxton (October 30, 2019). “NGO presses UK for urgent action on PFAS in food packaging.” Chemical Watch
