Case Study: PFAS in Food Packaging

Research: 

Our Institute collaborated with the University of Notre Dame, the Environmental Protection Agency, Silent Spring Institute, and Environmental Working Group to collect and screen fast food packaging for fluorine—indicating the likely presence of PFAS in 2017. We studied 400 samples of take-out packaging from fast food restaurants across the U.S.. Then we published a paper in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters finding that 46% of food contact papers and 20% of paperboard contained fluorine. Previous research has shown such chemicals can migrate from packaging into the food that we eat.

Partners: 

• Environmental Working Group prepared a campaign for consumers to ask the Food and Drug Administration to ban PFAS in food contact materials. The campaign was launched the day the paper was published.
• Senator Richard Blumenthal wrote the CEOs of major fast food chains questioning their use of PFAS and encouraging them to move to safer alternatives.

Workshop:

• A week after the paper was published, we held a workshop with the food packaging industry and their supply chain, scientists, government, and innovators. Together they started developing plans for healthier food packaging.
• Rhodes Yepsen, executive director of the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), suggested changes to BPI’s composability certification to exclude products with intentionally added PFAS after attending our workshop. About 2,000 products lost BPI certification when the requirements took effect in January 2020.
• Allen King, a food packaging executive who also attended the workshop, said, “It was an ‘aha’ moment that led our industry to commit to finding ways to cease using PFAS and find alternatives.”

Communications: 

• We wrote an engaging press release and pitched to reporters under embargo starting one week before the publication date.
• The study was covered by CNN, Huffington Post, the Verge, Bloomberg, and others. The study achieved a high Altmetric score and has had about 60,000 article views.

Results:

• On February 16, 2017, less than three weeks after the paper was published, California Assemblymember Phil Ting introduced Assembly Bill 958, which proposed the nation’s first ban on the entire class of PFAS in fast-food packaging and takeout containers.
• In 2018, the City of San Francisco banned PFAS in single-use foodware, effective January 2020. Other cities and counties have followed.
• Washington, Vermont, New York, Maine, and Minnesota passed bans on PFAS in food packaging from 2018 to 2021.
• Restaurant and grocery chains that collectively represent nearly 80,000 stores, including Chipotle, Wendy’s, Whole Foods Market, and McDonald’s, have removed or committed to limiting PFAS in their products.
• In 2019, Denmark became the first country to ban PFAS in paperboard food packaging.
• In 2020, the US Congress banned PFAS in military Meals Ready to Eat packaging.
• In 2021, California enacted AB 1200 banning the use of PFAS in food packaging, and requiring cookware manufacturers to disclose the hazardous chemicals, including PFAS, used in their products.
• In 2021, US Rep. Debbie Dingell introduced the bipartisan Keep Food Containers Safe from PFAS Act, which would prohibit food packaging containing intentionally added PFAS.
• A major fast food restaurant industry representative told us that after our paper was published and following from our meeting, their industry began looking for effective and affordable alternatives to PFAS worldwide.
• In 2024, the US FDA announced that manufacturers had stopped selling PFAS-containing grease-proofing agents for U.S. paper and paperboard food packaging.