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Understanding PFAS in Packaging and Processing Operations

As evidence of the harmful health and environmental effects of PFAS grows, companies need to make informed decisions to limit the substances’ presence in their operations.

One of the primary uses of PFAS is as a grease barrier in food packaging.
One of the primary uses of PFAS is as a grease barrier in food packaging.
Iryna Mylinska via Getty Images

Remarkably useful and once thought inert, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) pose a growing concern for consumer-packaged goods companies, prompting a need for strategic action amid new scientific findings and legislation.

PFAS have woven themselves into the fabric of packaging and processing in the decades since their invention. Their applications include as a grease barrier in food packaging, a flow agent during plastics processing, a mold release agent, and in stain resistance for everything from car interiors to carpeting.

“They were so successful that we absolutely polluted the planet with them,” explains Keith Vorst, director of the Polymer and Food Protection Consortium (PFPC) at Iowa State University.

The PFPC is one of the largest organizations of its kind in the U.S., operating out of 10 labs to conduct packaging-related analysis, including shelf-life testing, packaging development, screening for chemicals of concern, and strategizing with brands and suppliers to establish PFAS threshold levels and identify contamination sources.

Knowledge gaps on the health and environmental toll of PFAS

Researchers are still studying the health and environmental effects of PFAS, but these largely manmade substances have become widespread through decades of use.

“Everyone on the planet right now is contaminated with these chemistries. Everyone on the planet, and most animals,” Vorst says. “[Researchers are] finding them in polar bears, in virgin forests, in marine environments that are several hundred feet below [the surface], even near the ocean floor. 

PFAS can bioaccumulate in humans and is linked to various negative health effects, including decreased fertility, developmental effects or delays in children, and increased risk of some cancers, including prostate, kidney, and testicular cancers, according to the EPA.

Regulatory bodies like the FDA have worked to limit the use of more dangerous PFAS chemistries, including a phase-out of long-chain PFAS that was completed in 2016.

The problem doesn’t stop there, though. The short-chain chemistries that replaced them may be “as dangerous or even potentially more dangerous than the long-chain, depending on which researcher or which publication you look at,” Vorst says. 

   Learn about the FDA's recent actions to limit short-chain PFAS in food packaging.

Several universities are working toward PFAS elimination or removal through methods like electro-oxidation, foam fractionation, and filtration techniques. However, these solutions are still years from scaling to a degree that creates measurable impact.

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