FDA focus on PFAS
The European Food safety authority EFSA assess health risks posed by chemicals in food. Food safety and hygiene processes and following of HACCP rules are critical factors for avoiding the pfas risk and potential recalls. Through iComplai platform users will be notified on emerging chemical contamination risks like PFAS or acrylamide.
What are PFAS?
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a diverse group of human-made chemicals used in a wide range of consumer and industrial products. PFAS do not easily breakdown and some types have been shown to accumulate in the environment and in our bodies. Exposure to some types PFAS have been linked to serious health effects.
EPA's researchers and partners across the country are working hard to answer critical questions about PFAS:
How to better and more efficiently detect and measure PFAS in our air, water, soil, and fish and wildlife
How much people are exposed to PFAS
How harmful PFAS are to people and the environment
How to remove PFAS from drinking water
How to manage and dispose of PFAS
When PFAS were detected?
Although PFAS have been in use for more than 80 years, scientific understanding and technical instrumentation needed to test for PFAS at very low concentrations in food began only recently.
PFAS molecules have a chain of linked carbon and fluorine atoms. Because the carbon-fluorine bond is one of the strongest, these chemicals do not degrade easily in the environment.
What are the products PFAS detected?
PFAS are found in water, air, fish, and soil at locations across the nation and the globe. The use of soil, water, or biosolids contaminated with PFAS to grow crops, feed animals intended for food, or raise fish or other seafood, can lead to PFAS entering the food supply. PFAS chemicals pollute water, do not break down, and remain in the environment and people for decades.
Below is the sample list of products where PFAS was found .
First FDA notifications due to PFAS have been on baby clams.
What are the risks of PFAS?
The widespread use of PFAS and their ability to remain intact in the environment means that over time PFAS levels from past and current uses can result in increasing levels of environmental contamination.
Accumulation of certain PFAS has also been shown through blood tests to occur in humans and animals. While the science surrounding potential health effects of bioaccumulation is developing, exposure to some types of PFAS have been associated with serious health effects.
According to the current opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), seven compounds, PFOA, PFNA, PFHxS, PFOS, perfluoroheptane sulfonic acid (PFHpS), perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA) and perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUnDA) represent around 97% of the PFAS most frequently examined in human blood in adults in Europe. PFOA, PFNA, PFHxS and PFOS show the highest concentrations in human blood plasma and serum in adults. About 90% of the PFAS levels that can be detected in human blood are represented by these four PFAS.
What is the amount of PFAS that consumers ingest through food?
EFSA's 2020 calculation for the mean total weekly intake of PFOA, PFNA, PFHxS and PFOS in the adult population in Europe averages 6.44 nanograms (ng) per kilogram (kg) of bodyweight for the sum of these four PFAS. The intake levels for infants, toddlers, children and adolescents can be significantly higher.
There is currently no legally determined maximum level for PFAS in food products
Detection of PFAS in Breastmilk?
PFAS are widely dispersed and ubiquitous in the environment, and most people in the United States and other industrialized countries have measurable amounts of PFAS in their blood. Research studies have shown that PFAS can be found in human breast milk and excreted through lactation. The mechanism by which PFAS enter breast milk is not yet fully understood. The level of exposure to an infant depends on a number of circumstances, some of which include the level of PFAS in the mother, the amount of PFAS that transfers to her breast milk, and the duration of breastfeeding. However, measuring PFAS in breast milk is not a routine test performed by most commercial laboratories.
What are the current regulations on PFAS?
Through the FDA’s testing of foods grown or produced in areas with known environmental PFAS contamination, it’s clear that PFAS in the soil, water, or air can be absorbed by plants and animals, leading to contaminated foods.
In 2022, FDA conducted a targeted seafood survey and in the limited samples tested, found more types of PFAS and higher levels compared with the fresh and processed foods tested in the TDS samples.
When levels of PFAS in foods are determined to be a human health concern, the FDA works closely with state and local officials, as well as our federal partners, to assess each situation and take appropriate steps to ensure the food does not enter the market.
The development of toxicological reference values is an area of ongoing scientific research. There are six PFAS (PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFHxS, HFPO-DA ⌈GenX, and PFBS) from environmental contamination for which the FDA can assess the potential human health concern for levels found in food.
As of now the European Commission has not published any notifications on products contaminated with PFAS. Subscribe to our newsletter or contact us to know about future developments on this topic.
References:
https://www.fda.gov/food/chemical-contaminants-food/and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances-pfas
https://www.bmuv.de/faqs/per-und-polyfluorierte-chemikalien-pfas/
BVL (German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety).