Get serious on chemicals: Zero Waste Europe urges policymakers to deliver hazardous substance reform

14 Jul 2023 --- Zero Waste Europe (ZWE) is urging policymakers to take advantage of fresh delays to EU regulation to address growing concerns around human exposure to hazardous chemicals through food packaging.

We speak to the NGO’s toxic-free circular economy policy officer, Dr. Dorota Napierska, about why a successful shift away from harmful chemicals in food packaging is only achievable through combined efforts. We also discuss challenges and solutions for making food packaging leak-safe. 

“The European Commission’s (but also some member states’) ‘seriousness’ about addressing public concerns over hazardous substances in products has become much less ambitious, which is not acceptable when we know from human biomonitoring studies that food packaging is one of the significant sources of exposure of the EU population to harmful chemicals,” she says.

“Repeated daily exposure to these chemicals may contribute to serious human health risks, such as decreased fertility, obesity, diabetes and cancers. This is becoming a major public health concern and we cannot continue to postpone bold actions to improve this situation.”

Humans left exposed
Current regulations on food packaging are subject to a complex interplay of different laws. But the systematic evaluation of food contact materials (FCMs) regulation completed last year revealed several shortcomings that prevent it from effectively achieving its two main objectives. 

These objectives are to secure a high level of protection of human health and consumer interests and ensure the optimal functioning of the internal market, states ZWE in its latest policy briefing.

Napierska explains that it is often unclear how chemical safety should be achieved and how it can be demonstrated. “Ironically, the EU rules on chemicals in food contact materials chemicals are less protective than other EU chemical regulations. The regulatory focus on plastic packaging is prominent, but harmonized EU rules are lacking for most other materials where harmful chemicals can be found, for example, in food packaging made of paper and board, metal, multi-materials and other food contact materials.”

ZWE regrets that a revision of EU legislation on FCMs and REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) legislation are facing further delays, and it is yet to be determined when and what system changes will be proposed. 

Napierska says that the implementation of all rules from different EU regulations that cover food packaging safety is something that the industry is obliged to do, as manufacturers’ responsibility is to market food packaging that “does not endanger human health.”

Lack of harmonization
Another challenge is that it is often unclear how chemical safety should be achieved and how it can be demonstrated. 

“The situation is also complicated by the fact that for most materials used to make food packaging, we lack harmonized rules on the EU level, including for paper and board that is used in huge amounts. As a result of those and many other gaps in the laws that should ensure the highest level of consumer protection, it’s very difficult to demonstrate compliance or the lack of it,” says Napierska. 

“What the EU’s member states need to do (better than now) is have stricter enforcement. We know that currently, member states are able to carry out inspections and controls only in a very limited capacity and the current systems of official controls as implemented cannot adequately enforce the requirements of the legislation.”

“Nevertheless, some EU member states are much more proactive than others regarding consumer safety. France for example banned the BPA in all food contact materials, Denmark banned PFAS in food packaging made of paper and cardboard.”

But what can be done at the EU level? As a matter of priority and to ensure a high level of human protection, the FCM framework regulation needs a comprehensive and “very much overdue” revision,” says Napierska.

She explains that the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive revision is also an opportunity to introduce harmonized EU rules on substances of concern applied to all materials and packaging articles, for example, to incentivize avoidance of the most harmful chemicals and require reporting on the use and tracking of such chemicals along the supply chain.

“But without support from the EU member states – this will, of course, be very difficult to achieve,” she adds.

Chemical migration EU member states and institutions must work together to establish meaningful regulations, asserts ZWE. 
According to Napierska, a further issue is that many chemicals are not bound strongly enough to the matrix (the material used to make food packaging).

“A good example are plasticizers that make plastic soft and flexible, but start leaking from this plastic practically from the moment the food is packed,” she says.

She names PFAS used in greaseproof paper food packaging as another example: “Those chemicals are very likely to be released into the food when we, for example, wrap a hot hamburger in such paper because temperature, fat and salt accelerate such leaking.”

The briefing author continues by highlighting that many chemicals “will simply always leak,” to a different degree, from food packaging – “it is known that what we call ‘chemical migration’ is affected by the temperature, type of food, packaging material and size and storage time.”

“Importantly, the current legislation is not sufficiently effective at taking into account the possible combination effects of many different substances that may migrate from FCMs simultaneously, in particular, that the toxicity of combinations of substances could be larger than that of individual substances.”

Since nobody can fully control chemical leakage under real-life conditions, the only way to ensure that consumers will not be exposed to harmful chemicals from food packaging is not to use them in the first place, argues Napierska.

“And policymakers, in fact, agree with such principles (as stated in the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability). Unfortunately, they don’t act appropriately, to make their own promises a new better and safer reality for consumers,” she points out.

“It sounds almost delusional that, for example, several substances recognized as very high concern to human health can still be legally used in food packaging. When it comes to improving packaging in a way that it does not leak chemicals, a shift to inert materials such as glass or stainless steel is, of course, also the solution.”

By Natalie Schwertheim