All Food Packaging Leaches Chemicals
The cover story from the latest Chemical & Engineering News details the challenges faced by food and drug makers to keep chemical leaching from product packaging and processing to a minimum. According to the article, even the most inert substances used in food packaging, such as glass, can leach chemicals because they are typically capped with metal, rubber or plastic. For example, carbon black and nitrosamines, both carcinogens, have been used to process rubber and have been found leaching from asthma inhalers and baby-bottle nipples. Bisphenol A and the chemicals in the inks used on labels are also discussed; apparently, even plastic barriers cannot stop ink migration.
The article notes, “Speak with anyone who produces, studies, or regulates packaging, and you will hear this point repeated: It is not a question of whether packaging components will leach into a product, it’s a question of how much.” Complicating the issue are physical or chemical processes used after packaging that can exacerbate leaching and the chemicals that may be in the shipping environment. The article discusses the possibility that pesticides could have been shipped in a truck that next carries foods or drugs. Food and drug producers reportedly take supply chain and packaging leaching issues into consideration when developing their products.
Various government agencies around the world regulate the components that are allowed in food packaging, although the European Union addresses only plastic packaging. “All other components of packaging are subject to a general rule that food-contact materials should ‘not transfer their constituents to foods in quantities which could endanger human health.’” The article also mentions emerging concerns over the
use of nanotechnology in packaging. According to the author, “Regulators lack the tools to characterize and detect such nanoscale materials as well as the materials’ impact on biological systems.” See Chemical & Engineering News, August 31, 2009.
