Food Packaging Science at IAFNS

The IAFNS Packaging Safety & Sustainability Committee mobilizes members from government, industry and academia to drive, fund and lead actionable science in support of public health.

Focus on Food Packaging

Through its tripartite model—bringing together scientists from governmentacademia, and industry—the Packaging Safety & Sustainability Committee funds external researchers and convenes experts to promote the recycling and sustainability of food packaging while maintaining and enhancing its safety.

 

Why is this Research Valuable?

The Committee works to expand scientific knowledge on toxicology, exposure and risk assessment of food packaging substances and potential contaminants. The committee also works to identify and resolve barriers to adoption of safe, recycled packaging in support of a more sustainable food supply.

Focus on Food Packaging

Explore recent publications and events from the Food Packaging Committee.

Join Us! >

Committee Members

FOCUS AREAS

Safety of Recycled Materials

Despite advances in recycling science, hurdles remain to the utilization of recycled plastics. Some of those constraints arise from the potential contact of material to be recycled with hazardous or restricted substances which limit or restrict their use for applications such as food contact. This effort will generate an in-depth survey of the plastic recycling landscape and identify safety issues and potential solutions to the increased adoption of recycled plastic. Results will also identify restricted and non-intentionally added substances in recycled material along with mitigation options to advance “clean” recycled plastics for safe re-use in food contact applications.

Recycling for Intended Use
Multiple Recycling
Microplastics

Projects Supported by the Committee

Tracking the Fate of Additives in Recycled Plastics through Multiple Simulated Life Cycles

Research question: What are the technical, quality, safety, and migration impacts of recycling Polypropylene multiple times? Most companies have made sustainability commitments that will require […]

Exposure Characterization of Micro- and Nanoplastics in Foods

FCS and Packaging Committee Project: Exposure Characterization of Micro- and Nanoplastics in Foods The volume of plastics produced globally every year has steadily increased over […]

Framework for Defining Suitable Recycled Resin Based on Intended End-Use and Characterizing Potential Chemicals of Concern

Advancing Standards for Recycled Plastics Changes in consumer behavior and growth in convenience foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products complicates the use of recycled materials by […]

Sharing Our Science

Committee Publications

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    [is_author] => 
    [is_category] => 
    [is_tag] => 1
    [is_tax] => 
    [is_search] => 
    [is_feed] => 
    [is_comment_feed] => 
    [is_trackback] => 
    [is_home] => 
    [is_privacy_policy] => 
    [is_404] => 
    [is_embed] => 
    [is_paged] => 
    [is_admin] => 
    [is_attachment] => 
    [is_singular] => 
    [is_robots] => 
    [is_favicon] => 
    [is_posts_page] => 
    [is_post_type_archive] => 
    [query_vars_hash:WP_Query:private] => 0fc568ea75dae3b6d4438e484c2e0be9
    [query_vars_changed:WP_Query:private] => 
    [thumbnails_cached] => 
    [allow_query_attachment_by_filename:protected] => 
    [stopwords:WP_Query:private] => 
    [compat_fields:WP_Query:private] => Array
        (
            [0] => query_vars_hash
            [1] => query_vars_changed
        )

    [compat_methods:WP_Query:private] => Array
        (
            [0] => init_query_flags
            [1] => parse_tax_query
        )

    [query_cache_key:WP_Query:private] => wp_query:95dc50c6123fca6c3bb622c8dfcb724b
)