A vision for safer food contact materials: Public health concerns as drivers for improved testing.

Food contact materials (FCMs) and food contact articles are ubiquitous in today's globalized food system. Chemicals migrate from FCMs into foodstuffs, so called food contact chemicals (FCCs), but current regulatory requirements do not sufficiently protect public health from hazardous FCCs because only individual substances used to make FCMs are tested and mostly only for genotoxicity while endocrine disruption and other hazard properties are disregarded. Indeed, FCMs are a known source of a wide range of hazardous chemicals, and they likely contribute to highly prevalent non-communicable diseases. FCMs can also include non-intentionally added substances (NIAS), which often are unknown and therefore not subject to risk assessment. To address these important shortcomings, we outline how the safety of FCMs may be improved by (1) testing the overall migrate, including (unknown) NIAS, of finished food contact articles, and (2) expanding toxicological testing beyond genotoxicity to multiple endpoints associated with non-communicable diseases relevant to human health. To identify mechanistic endpoints for testing, we group chronic health outcomes associated with chemical exposure into Six Clusters of Disease (SCOD) and we propose that finished food contact articles should be tested for their impacts on these SCOD. Research should focus on developing robust, relevant, and sensitive in-vitro assays based on mechanistic information linked to the SCOD, e.g., through Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs) or Key Characteristics of Toxicants. Implementing this vision will improve prevention of chronic diseases that are associated with hazardous chemical exposures, including from FCMs.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no competing interests to declare. For the sake of transparency, the authors list their relationships with various research funders and other organizations in the following. As researchers employed by the Food Packaging Forum Foundation (FPF) (JMB, BG, JM, LZ) or working pro bono as members of the Foundation’s board (TB, JPM, MS) and its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) (AMA, TJC, KJG, JJH, MVM, OVM, AN, CN, AMS, LT, MW, RTZ), we are reporting that the FPF receives donations from diverse companies that may be affected by the research reported in the enclosed paper. FPF funders have no influence on any of the work at FPF and were not involved in any way in the preparation of this manuscript. TB declares that he serves as the board member of the International Panel on Chemical Pollution (IPCP), the Swedish Toxicological Council and the EU Commission’s Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks (SCHEER). All those activities are pro bono and have no bearing on the content of the manuscript. None of the aforementioned organizations have had any impact on the content of the manuscript. TJC declares that he is the creator-founder of Sudoc, LLC, which deploys TAML catalysts for many applications and has potential for remediating FCCs in water. JL reports that she receives funding for another research project (ZonMw/Health-Holland Microplastics and Health project MOMENTUM 458001101) of which some partners may be affected by the research reported here. MVM is a paid consultant to the FPF. OVM is one of the representatives of the European Parliament on the European Chemical Agency’s Management Board. JPM is co-founder and board member of Sudoc and he declares to have given all his shares to an irrevocable grantor trust so that he will not benefit financially if the company is successful. AN declares to have received travel reimbursement from universities, NGOs and scientific societies, to speak about endocrine-disrupting chemicals. LNV has received travel reimbursements from universities, governments, NGOs, and industry. She has received research funding from the US National Institutes of Health, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and NGOs including the Cornell Douglas Foundation, the Allen Family Foundation, and the Great Neck Breast Cancer Coalition. She is a scientific advisor to Sudoc LLC. The FPF foundation board, whose members have no connection with any of the FPF’s funders and receive no remuneration for their work, is legally obliged to guarantee that the work of the FPF is in no way influenced by the interests or views of the funders.
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