Denmark wants to ban organic fluorinated substances in food packaging
Denmark can become the first country in the world to ban the entire group of organic fluorinated compounds in food contact materials of cardboard and paper, after the Minister for Environment and Food, Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, announced that is looking for a national ban of these substances.
The packaging industry in Denmark must find new solutions to replace organic fluorinated substances in cardboards and food paper if this idea is to become real. Organic fluorinated compounds are substances that can be used to make materials fat and water resistant. But the substances that make up a large group of chemical compounds are highly degradable and some of them accumulate in animals and humans. In addition, several of the substances are suspected of being endocrine disrupting, carcinogenic and harmful to the immune system, according to a press release of the Danish Ministry of Environment and Food.
"We have long been focusing on lowering the use of fluorinated compounds, and some of them are already banned or are becoming. We cannot risk harmful substances migrating from the packaging and into our food. Therefore, I have asked the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration to examine the possibilities for a national ban on the use of the entire group of organic fluorine compounds in food packaging of cardboard and paper", said Jensen, who wants the new law adopted before the EU regulation comes in force.
In December 2018, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published a new risk assessment of the two fluorinated substances PFOS and PFOA. EFSA's conclusion was that humans can tolerate far less of the two drugs than previously thought before there is a risk of adverse effects. "My concern for organic fluorinated substances has not diminished after EFSA's latest assessment. There may also be other fluorinated substances which are more harmful than we think today,", added minister Jensen.
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