Development of a new modelling tool (FACET) to assess exposure to chemical migrants from food packaging

Abstract

The approach used to obtain European Union-wide data on the usage and concentration of substances in different food packaging materials is described. Statistics were collected on pack sizes and market shares for the different materials used to package different food groups. The packaging materials covered were plastics (both flexible and rigid), metal containers, light metal packaging, paper and board, as well as the adhesives and inks used on them. An explanation as to how these data are linked in various ways in the FACET exposure modelling tool is given as well as an overview of the software along with examples of the intermediate tables of data. The example of bisphenol A (BPA), used in resins that may be incorporated into some coatings for canned foodstuffs, is used to illustrate how the data in FACET are combined to produce concentration distributions. Such concentration distributions are then linked probabilistically to the amounts of each food item consumed, as recorded in national food consumption survey diaries, in order to estimate exposure to packaging migrants. Estimates of exposure are at the level of the individual consumer and thus can be expressed for various percentiles of different populations and subpopulations covered by the national dietary surveys.

Inorganic Contaminants of Food as a Function of Packaging Features

“…The 'Flavourings, Additives and Food Contact materials Exposure Task' (FACET) European project has given an important contribution in terms of the creation of a database containing information on levels of different food-related substances and corresponding food consumption data [13]. The covered packaging materials have been plastics (flexible and rigid materials), metal containers, light metal packaging, paper and board materials, as well as used adhesives and inks.…”

“…This project has established a migration modelling framework for packaging materials into foods under real conditions of use. On these bases, the realistic estimation of substance concentrations for consumer exposure modelling has been obtained with the consequent creation of a reliable food intake database [13]. Generated data can provide exposure estimations using probabilistic models.…”

High-throughput dietary exposure predictions for chemical migrants from food contact substances for use in chemical prioritization

“…These exposure assessment methods involve combining population consumption rates for different foods with measured or modeled estimates of chemical migration from packaging material into those foods, scaled by the proportion of the food consumption in contact with packaging containing the chemical (U.S. FDA, 2007; Duffy et al, 2006; Oldring et al, 2014a; Oldring et al, 2014b). Any workflow to estimate population exposures to these chemicals must include methods to estimate migration values for thousands of chemicals into many different kinds of foods, and consider the distributions of consumption and packaging associated with those same foods.…”

Exploring Chemical Transport through Food: A Proposal for a Comprehensive Approach to Predict Exposures

“…, 4 Raw ingredients and fresh produce also can take on a chemical burden beginning with pesticides on the farm and industrial pollutants that accumulate in the environment, and continuing all the way through contamination during transport and distribution 5 6 …”