More than 3600 chemicals used in food packaging have been detected in the human body, some of which are hazardous to health, while others are little known, a new study reveals.
– About 100 of these chemicals are considered to be of “major concern” to human health – said Birgit Geuke from the author of the research.
Some of these chemicals are relatively well-studied and already found in the human body, such as PFAS and bisphenol A — both of which are being targeted for bans. But little is known about the health effects of others, Geuke said, calling for more research into how chemicals used in packaging end up in people's bodies along with food.
The researchers previously cataloged about 14,000 chemicals that are capable of leaching into food from packaging made of plastic, paper, glass, metal or other materials. They can also come from other parts of the food production process, for example, conveyor belts or kitchen utensils. The researchers then searched for these chemicals in existing biomonitoring databases, which track chemicals in human samples.
The team expected to find a few hundred such chemicals, according to Geuke. Instead, they were surprised to find 3601 — a quarter of all known such chemicals. Geuke stressed that this study cannot show that all of these chemicals necessarily end up in the human body from packaging.
Among the chemicals of “key concern” were PFAS, also known as Persistent Organic Pollutants, which have been found in many parts of the human body in recent years and have been linked to a range of health problems. Also found was bisphenol A, a chemical used to make plastics and now banned from baby bottles in many countries.
Other chemicals include phthalates, which have been linked to infertility. Less is known about oligomers, which are also byproducts of plastic manufacturing.
One limitation of the study is that it wasn't possible to say whether there were particularly high concentrations of any of the chemicals, Geuke acknowledged. But she cautioned that these chemicals can interact with each other, pointing to one sample that had up to 30 different PFASs.
Geuke recommends that people reduce contact time with packaging – and avoid heating food in the packaging the food itself comes in.
Meanwhile, the European Union is in the final stages of banning the use of PFAS in food packaging. The EU is also proposing a similar ban on bisphenol A by the end of this year.
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