Safety Assessment of Food-Packaging Materials

The safety assessment of food-packaging materials has attracted relatively little public interest in comparison with the attention paid to the safety of direct food additives. The major types of food-packaging materials used are paper, board, metal, plastics, waxes, ceramics, glass, regenerated cellulose, wood, textiles, elastomers, and rubber. As with other food chemicals, risk assessment in the food-packaging area involves two key pieces of knowledge: the hazard or inherent toxicity of the substance, and the known or predicted level of human exposure. The starting substances used to make a food-packaging material may also be transformed during the process of manufacture of the material or degraded to other substances if heated, and to date there is very little knowledge about transformation and degradation products. Migration of chemicals into foods can have two adverse consequences: they can impart undesirable flavors and/or odors to the food, and they may be potentially toxic.