Hazardous Chemicals in Recycled and Reusable Plastic Food Packaging
May 22, 2023 | Birgit Geueke, Drake W. Phelps, Lindsey V. Parkinson, and Jane Muncke
Impact Statement
Society has benefited from plastic food packaging: many foodstuffs have become widely available to humanity throughout the year. However, a downside of plastic food packaging is its environmental persistence when local waste management fails or is not available at all. The increasing plastic pollution is being tackled by different means, one of them being a shift to using more recycled content in plastic articles. Another approach is to ramp up reusable packaging by introducing refillable containers. But both approaches – reusing and recycling plastic food packaging – must address the issue of chemicals that transfer from packaging into food, and that may lead to food safety issues due to the presence of hazardous chemicals that accumulate in plastics throughout their life cycle. In this review article, we zoom in on this issue of chemicals in reusable and/or recyclable plastic food containers, such as packaging and other plastic items that come into contact with food, like kitchen utensils and tableware. We highlight the scientific evidence and key knowledge gaps on chemicals in plastics and how some chemicals of concern found in plastics affect human health.
Abstract
In the battle against plastic pollution many efforts are being undertaken to reduce, reuse, and recycle plastics. If tackled in the right way, these efforts have the potential to contribute to reducing plastic waste and plastic’s spread in the environment. However, reusing and recycling plastics can also lead to unintended negative impacts, because hazardous chemicals, like endocrine disrupters and carcinogens, can be released during reuse and accumulate during recycling. In this way, plastic reuse and recycling become vectors for spreading chemicals of concern. This is especially concerning when plastics are reused for food packaging, or when food packaging is made with recycled plastics. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that care is taken to avoid hazardous chemicals in plastic food contact materials, and to ensure that plastic packaging that is reused or made with recycled content is safe for human health and the environment. The data presented in this review are obtained from the Database on Migrating and Extractable Food Contact Chemicals (FCCmigex), which is based on over 700 scientific publications on plastic food contact materials. We provide systematic evidence for migrating and extractable food contact chemicals (FCCs) in plastic polymers that are typically reused, such as polyamide (PA), melamine resin (MelRes), polycarbonate (PC), and polypropylene(PP), or that contain recycled content, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET). 1332 entries in the FCCmigex database refer to the detection of 509 FCCs in repeat-use food contact materials made of plastic. 853 FCCs are found in recycled PET, of which 57.6% have been detected only once. Here, we compile information on the origin, function, and hazards of FCCs that have been frequently detected, such as melamine, 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol, 2,6-di-tert-butylbenzoquinone, caprolactam and PA oligomers, and highlight key knowledge gaps that are relevant for the assessment of chemical safety.
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