United States: That plastic wrap you find around the food you eat is far from benign and also a new study reveals that over 3600 chemicals migrate into food through packaging.
Among them, 79 chemicals are proven to cause cancer, genetic disorders, and endocrine system and reproductive system problems, a group of international scholars said Tuesday in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental and the Epidemiology.
As reported by the HealthDay, “The findings from our study contribute to understanding the relation between food contact chemicals and human exposure, identify chemicals not analysed in biomonitoring and support research on safer food contact materials,” Food Packaging Forum senior scientific officer Dr Birgit Geueke said in a news release on the study.
Scientists were left in a state of shock with the results that had been recorded.
“This is absolutely amazing and what is alarming is that food contact materials are the largest source of chemicals that we ingest daily,” Dr Martin Wagner, a biology professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology said to CNN.
“The work is the first major attempt to systematically map the chemicals employed in materials to package and process foods to people’s exposure, Wagner said.”
They found out that though the materials used, in food packaging meets the set regulatory standards, some of these chemicals are not harmless as people may think, according to Jane Muncke, managing director and chief scientific officer at the Food Packaging Forum.
“We are not even certain of the breakdown of the amount we have used in food packaging or other food containing materials as compared to the amount used in cosmetics, personal effects and other apparel besides the textiles ones, right? I would like to have that information,” she said in an interview with CNN. “I believe that it should be mandated that companies announce how much and what kind of chemicals they are putting in my food or my plastic water bottle. ”
In the responses to the findings the American Chemistry Council stressed that its members are dedicated to the food safety.
However, it is necessary when assessing the potential risks to consider a broader context which includes existing regulatory frameworks, scientific evidence and the actual levels and the degree of the exposure that may exist a council spokesperson told the CNN and any purposed the actions that are lacking this context which is particularly when causality has bot been definitively established, is inconsistent with risk-based U.S chemical regulation laws.