Nearly 200 chemicals linked to breast cancer are used in common food packaging and plastic tableware — and roughly two-thirds of them can migrate into the human body, according to the authors of a new peer-reviewed study.
Nearly 200 chemicals linked to breast cancer are used in common food packaging and plastic tableware — and roughly two-thirds of them can migrate into the human body, according to the authors of a new peer-reviewed study.
Lindsey Parkinson, a data scientist, scientific editor at the Food Packaging Forum and lead author of the study, told The Defender she wasn’t surprised to find so many hazardous chemicals in food contact materials.
The Food Packaging Forum is a Switzerland-based nonprofit that helps stakeholders “make better decisions by applying the latest science on chemicals in food contact materials and on the environmental impacts of food packaging.”
“What I did find surprising,” Parkinson said, “was that out of the 189 potential mammary carcinogens that have ever been detected in food contact materials, 121 — nearly two-thirds — were detected through migration studies.”
That means the chemicals are not only present in the packaging but were also shown to be released into foods, she said.
Parkinson and her co-authors, who also work for the Food Packaging Forum, published their report on Sept. 23 in Frontiers in Toxicology.
They called for improved regulatory oversight so consumers don’t have to worry about consuming possible carcinogens when they buy packaged food or plastic tableware.
Since 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been under fire for failing to enforce a science-based policy that prevents potentially unsafe chemicals from leaching into people’s food.
On Wednesday, the agency will hold a public meeting to share ideas for improving the FDA’s process for detecting chemicals in foods and to hear feedback.
Dozens of possible carcinogens detected in markets around the world
For their study, Parkinson and her co-authors compared a list of 921 substances that scientists at the Silent Spring Institute determined to be “potential mammary carcinogens” to the Food Packaging Forum’s database of chemicals known to migrate into foods with which they make contact.
The Silent Spring Institute is a nonprofit that studies the links between environmental chemicals and breast cancer.
The 921 substances had a “high likelihood of contributing to breast cancer development, based on direct evidence of inducing mammary tumors in rodent models, genotoxicity testing exhibiting endocrine disruption, or activation of other hormonal signaling pathways associated with the pathogenesis of breast cancer,” the authors noted.
Of the 921 substances, 189 (21%) showed up on the Food Packaging Forum’s database of chemicals known to migrate into foods.
The authors then looked specifically at which chemicals showed up in migration studies in 2020-2022, to get a sense of people’s realistic exposure.
They concluded that 76 potential mammary carcinogens were detected to migrate from food contact materials “sold in markets across the globe, under realistic conditions of use.”
These potential carcinogens were detected in markets from the U.S., India, China, Nigeria, Ghana, Spain, Mexico, Austria, Canada, Syria, Poland, Iran, Malaysia, Denmark, Egypt, Turkey, Greece and Brazil.
Roughly 75% of the potentially harmful chemicals were found in plastics. Others were found in paper and recycled paper products, many of which use glue or adhesives.
“Nearly all material groups had some of these potential carcinogens — likely because plastics are incorporated into linings and coatings on other materials,” Parkinson told The Defender.
Study co-author Jane Muncke, Ph.D., managing director and chief scientific officer at the Food Packaging Forum, told CNN, “Getting rid of these known or suspected carcinogens in our food supply is a huge opportunity for cancer prevention.”
Concerns about chemicals can’t be tackled by consumers alone
The study authors said their findings highlight “the shortcomings and gaps of the current regulatory system.”
“These concerns around chemicals shouldn’t have to, and largely can’t, be tackled by consumers alone,” Parkinson told The Defender.
She and her co-authors acknowledged that the U.S. and European Union have passed regulations that specifically target carcinogens in food contact materials, but said evidence suggests that these measures are “not entirely effective.”
That’s understandable because today’s food packaging materials are complex. “This isn’t always a bad thing,” Parkinson said. “It’s great to be able to preserve, protect and store food — but we need a regulatory system that can handle the literally thousands of food contact chemicals that are on the market.”
She added, “And the chemicals with known hazards, such as cancer-causing properties, need to be addressed with high priority.”
Rather than doing individual risk assessments for each chemical used in the food packaging industry, Parkinson and her co-authors encouraged regulatory agencies to use what’s called the Key Characteristics (KC) framework for making science-based decisions on how best to protect consumers from harm.
Under the KC framework, chemicals can be grouped and assessed based on their properties — or key characteristics — making it easier to quickly identify which chemicals might be carcinogenic.
The authors explained how the framework would help regulatory agencies:
“The KC framework can help … by identifying intrinsic chemical properties in the context of biological systems that are predictive of hazard. …
“With clear indicators of harmful characteristics, and how any chemical with those characteristics will be regulated, industries can be encouraged to innovate and develop safer alternatives using the KC framework.”
Parkinson pointed out that chemical migration increases over time, at higher temperatures, with fatty and/or acidic foods and/or when foods are packaged in smaller serving sizes.
If you have the option, Parkinson advised consumers to store foods in containers made of steel, glass or ceramic — they’re inert, meaning they don’t transfer chemicals from their interiors — wait for foods to cool before storing, put fatty or acidic foods in inert containers and buy in bulk or without packaging.
The Defender reached out to the FDA for comment but did not receive a response by the deadline.
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