More Than 3,000 Chemicals Enter Our Bodies Through Food Packaging, According to a New Study

There are an estimated 14,000 known chemicals in food packaging. And according to a newly published study, more than 3,600 of them could now be lurking in your body. 

On Tuesday, a research team from Switzerland and several other nations published their findings in the new study, “Evidence for widespread human exposure to food contact chemicals,” in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology. The team compared more than 14,000 known food contact chemicals (FCCs) to five biomonitoring programs and three metabolome/exposome databases to see which ones are most frequently detected in “food contact materials” and then mapped their presence in humans. It found evidence of 3,601 of them, representing 25% of known FCCs. The team noted in the findings that 80 of these FCCs have “hazard properties of high concern.” Here’s what you need to know. 

What are food contact chemicals? 

As described in 2020 in the consensus statement, “Impacts of food contact chemicals on human health,” FCCs are the chemical constituents of “food contact materials and finished food contact articles, including food packaging, food storage containers, food processing equipment, and kitchen- and tableware.” The team defined FCCs as “all the chemical species present in food contact articles, regardless of whether they are intentionally added or present for other reasons.” 

Again, there are thousands of FCCs; however, as the authors of the new study note, they found metals and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or “forever” chemicals, had made their way to the human body through food packaging. 

How dangerous are these chemicals? 

As Food & Wine previously reported, exposure to PFAS chemicals, which have been used for decades in packing and other products to “impart oil, water, stain, and soil repellency,” could potentially have serious health consequences. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) noted several “potential outcomes” from PFAS exposure, including changes in cholesterol and liver enzyme levels, small changes in infant birth weight, and changes in the immune system and response to certain vaccines.

“One of the main outcomes is suppression of your immune responses after you get a vaccine,” Dr. Jamie DeWitt, the director of the Environmental Health Sciences Center at Oregon State University, who has long studied the human immune response to PFAS, shared with Food & Wine. “The type of suppression that has been observed from PFAS and other environmental chemicals would be considered clinically to be mild to moderate. It doesn’t mean that people are going to immediately get sick and immediately have problems, but we know from studies of people who are mild to moderately immunosuppressed that there is an increased risk of infection and there is an increased risk of other types of diseases such as cancer.” 

How can I mitigate my risk? 

The researchers of the new study note that “toxicity data are often incomplete or missing, which means that safe use cannot be assessed.” So, they suggest reducing exposure “to known hazardous FCCs and assessing untested FCCs can contribute to the prevention of non-communicable diseases that are associated with chemical exposures.” 

This can be done in a multitude of ways. As the Washington Post reported, exposing food to these chemicals at high temperatures can cause them to leach more quickly into fo. Thus, it’s not advisable to microwave anything in its takeout container. Simply educating yourself on which containers may be worse than others is also critical, as they may not be what you expect. 

“Probably the worst one is recycled paper and cardboard,” Muncke told the paper. “And I know that’s a hard one to stomach.” That’s because recycled paper, cardboard, and plastic can leach non food grade ink mixing with food, adding more chemicals than before. 

Additionally, the experts Food & Wine spoke to previously noted that there are other ways people can limit their exposure, including looking for products that are “BPI certified,” which means they are certified by the Biodegradable Products Institute, which requires all compostable food packaging to be PFAS-free. Consumers can also check out the Center for Environmental Health website, which frequently updates its database of PFAS-free food packaging. 

There is also one more way those living in the U.S. can advocate for themselves, and that’s by taking part in an upcoming public hearing put on by the Food and Drug Administration on the “Development of an Enhanced Systematic Process for FDA’s Post-Market Assessment of Chemicals in Food.” It’s happening on Wednesday, September 25, 2024, and you can submit your questions for the panel here.