Scientists propose grouping food-packaging chemicals to streamline safety regulation
Researchers suggest classifying thousands of food-contact chemicals into similar groups so regulators can assess and restrict them more efficiently.
Helene Weisinger and colleagues have introduced a framework that groups chemically alike food-contact substances, aiming to simplify regulatory oversight. Their analysis of roughly 15,000 chemicals used in packaging found that 1,222 pose clear health hazards, while the majority lack comprehensive toxicity data. By organizing these compounds into 38 structurally related clusters, regulators could address entire families of chemicals at once, reducing the “whack-a-mole” effect of replacing banned substances with similarly risky ones.
Olwenn Martin emphasizes that testing each chemical separately would take hundreds or thousands of years at current speeds. The approach could also help limit exposure to unknown “non-intentionally added substances” that arise during plastic manufacturing, which currently leach into food with little oversight.
