More Than 3,000 Potentially Harmful Chemicals Found In Food Packaging

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Thu May 19, 2022, 08:27 PM - Edit history (1)

- 'More than 3,000 potentially harmful chemicals found in food packaging,' The Guardian, May 19, 2022.

- International experts who analyzed more than 1,200 scientific studies warn chemicals are being consumed with unknown long-term impacts -

Scientists have identified more than 3,000 potentially harmful chemicals that can be found in food packaging and other food-related materials, two-thirds of which were not previously known to be in contact with food. An international group of scientists analyzed more than 1,200 scientific studies where chemicals had been measured in food packaging, processing equipment, tableware and reusable food containers.

A report released on Thursday by the Food Packaging Forum, a Switzerland-based non-profit, noted little is known about many of the 3,240 chemicals examined in these studies or their effects on people. Manufacturers are either intentionally or unintentionally adding these chemicals to packaging and other equipment, said Pete Myers, a report co-author and founder and chief scientist of Environmental Health Sciences, a non-profit advocacy group. Either way, many of those chemicals are ending up in the human body, he said.

“If we don’t know what it is, we don’t know its toxicity,” Myers said. “The mix of chemicals is just too complicated to allow us to regulate them safely.”

The new analysis, published in the journal Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, comes amid growing concerns about exposure to potentially toxic chemicals in food and water. The Food Packaging Forum has created a searchable database with the chemicals found in the packaging and equipment, known as food contact materials. While many of the chemicals on the list are known hazards such as phthalates and PFAS, others have not been adequately studied, the group said, and their health effects are unclear.

Researchers were shocked to find chemicals in food contact materials that consumers could have no knowledge of. Just one-third of the chemicals studied appeared in a previously compiled database of more than 12,000 chemicals associated with the manufacturing of food contact materials. Previous studies have found potentially dangerous PFAS “forever chemicals” in food packaging. Those chemicals have been linked to a list of health problems. Nearly two-thirds of the studies analyzed in the new report looked at chemicals in plastic. Packaging manufacturers often add chemicals without knowing the long-term ramifications...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/19/more-than-3000-potentially-harmful-chemicals-food-packaging-report-shows
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- Consumer Reports, 'Dangerous PFAS Chemicals Are in Your Food Packaging,' March 24, 2022. - CR found 'forever chemicals' in bowls, bags, plates, and wrappers, even from some companies that say they've phased them out...
https://www.consumerreports.org/pfas-food-packaging/dangerous-pfas-chemicals-are-in-your-food-packaging-a3786252074/

- EWG, Environmental Working Group, Toxic Food Chemicals,
https://www.ewg.org/areas-focus/toxic-chemicals/food-chemicals



- Glyphosate

[bucolic_frolic]

1. "food contact materials"

I have wondered about that. Most things come in plastic. And how about liquor in plastic bottles. 20 years ago they told us it was toxic. Now you can hardly find glass bottled liquor.

[appalachiablue]

2. Plastic is everywhere, and other toxins in food, cosmetics,

shampoo, hair and skin products. Cookware, rain coats, clothing, furniture and other products are coated with chemicals to be 'stain resistant.' No wonder there's so much illness. Agricultural crops are grown with glyphosate which gets into the soil, air and water.

[wnylib]

3. Milk in plastic bottles. Many more people,

including children, drink milk or consume it in baked goods and casseroles.

Vegetables are packaged in plastic (frozen) or in cans with who knows what in the lining of the cans.