ABOUT
The need
Food safety is one of the principal concerns, not only for industries but also for consumers and health assurance. Many illnesses, from acute poisoning or long-term diseases, such as cancer, are due to contaminants intake via human and animal nutrition. Economic aspects are strictly linked to the quality and safety of the products present on the market. People are willing to pay the right price for a product that does not harm their health and the environment.
For food industries, the quantification of the level of contamination, e.g., MOSH/MOAH and PFAS, and the identification of its source are topics of paramount importance, but they often constitute a difficult task to achieve.
The project will address the need for informed and safe use of food packaging materials and support the trust of end-users and consumers.
The advances achieved with this project will support the industry, which is committed to reducing the transfer and the occurrence of undesired contaminants in food, since at the industrial level, the prerequisites for effective prevention are process analyses, the scale-up of the findings and the strict application at industrial level.
Although various analytical methods have been developed to analyse contaminants in food, new strategies to improve their reliability, sensitivity and applicability are urgently needed. Moreover, it is mandatory to establish standard methods and to develop certified reference materials. False negatives, matrix effects and the need to improve detection limits are also of great concern when food contaminants are to be identified and quantified, considering the advancement in analytical methodologies. Rigorous evaluation of the measurement uncertainty is fundamental in respect to the amount of detected Analyte and the food matrix.
The project will establish a metrological network able to provide, in collaboration with research centres and industries, innovative harmonised standards,
internationally recognised, aimed at the detection and quantification of contaminants in food, with a focus on those possibly migrated from virgin and
recycled food packaging materials. In particular, it will treat the contaminants most problematic from an analytical point of view. It will also consider the
alignment with the demand and challenges of a society always more addressed to acceptability, conformity, safety and quality of the agrifood chain.
Social, economic, and environmental aspects will be considered. In the project, three of 17 UN 2030 sustainable objectives will be considered, such as
Well-being and health, Responsible consumption and production and Life on earth.
Currently, there are no reference materials for the quality control of the MOSH and MOAH quantification in food. Reference Materials for the three SCoPAFF
categories are needed by the official food control for MOAH quantification at concentration levels near the LOQs defined by SCoPAFF.
For PFAS, analytical methods are need to be developed and validate for the quantification on relevant matrices, for which the contamination of PFAS is
known to be a major threat like e.g. vegetables, blue food (fish, fish liver) and food packaging. These matrices will be prioritised, considering the inputs and
needs of industries and relevant stakeholders.
In parallel, the project will address the need for metrological tools (analytical methods) to detect PFAS replacements (including GenX and perfluorobutane
sulfonate) that are now found in the environment and food matrices, including drinking water sources.
Also, the use of reusable and recycled packaging materials, often not standardised in their composition, generates additional problems, especially
because this not only increases the potential sources of contamination but, in many cases, also the range and levels of chemicals that can migrate from
the packaging into food, such as endocrine disruptors, MOSH/MOAH, PFAS and metals. On the other hand, in the context of packaging, reuse and recycling
are both practical and politically endorsed means to initiate a change, which is expected to deliver both economic and environmental benefits Therefore,
progress in these fields is increasingly needed for two reasons: i) The consumer’s awareness of the food safety issues that require in-depth information on
food contaminants provided by the industry to the end-users, and ii) the concept of a circular economy that has been developed as a tool to prevent and
reduce detrimental human activities, in particular, related to food packaging materials and their recycling.