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More Attention (Controversy?) for Food Packaging

If you’ve been following the recent controversies over the federal regulation of food contact materials in the U.S., including packaging, you’ve seen a variety of types of activity.

Eric New

Non-government consumer advocacy groups, and even internal government watchdogs, have complained especially about the approach to substances considered Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) in petitions to regulators, an unsuccessful lawsuit, and now even before Congress.

Now, in November, came the latest important bit of attention, a new government oversight report that analyzes FDA’s food contact approval program generally, with specific focus on Food Contact Notifications, and finds what it calls deficiencies, and recommends changes.

The report is from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and was created with input from stakeholders inside and outside of government. The report examines the regulation of packaging materials in contact with food, and also substances used in manufacturing and transporting food.

There’s an emphasis in the report on post-market actions, that is, revisiting the safety of substances on the market that were previously found to be safe for use in contact with food. It examines the three examples of FDA stopping the use of food contact substances: per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), short-chain PFAS, and diphenyl ketone.

The report is focused on the substances FDA has cleared, and doesn’t encompass companies’ self-determined GRAS conclusions. Objections relating to such conclusions, including the fact that FDA isn’t aware of them, have been the subject of other proposals to change the law.

For example, there’s a bill currently under consideration in Congress that would create the Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act of 2022. If passed, it would instruct FDA to make revisions to its current regulations about GRAS substances such that manufacturers would have to give FDA notice of their GRAS conclusion.

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