Safety of Chemicals in Plastics Packaging

Plastics packaging plays a vital role in helping to make our lives better, healthier and safer.

The UK plastics industry considers issues of chemical safety to be of paramount importance. Plastics used in food packaging are subject to a whole battery of EU and national regulations that are constantly being updated. Chemicals such as bisphenol A and phthalates have undergone rigorous EU Risk Assessments and have been consistently found to be safe for use in all current applications. On top of this, monitoring is carried out not only by the European Food Safety Authority but also by the UK Food Standards Agency.

Developments in plastic packaging have been responsible for vast improvements in food hygiene over the past 50 years — without such packaging, food hygiene would likely regress to pre-war levels when the incidence of food poisoning was much higher. It was not uncommon before the days of durable and sealable packaging for rotting food, improperly packed, to cause worrying levels of fatality.

The plastics used in the packaging of food are often the same as those that are recommended by medical authorities for use in life saving medical applications, which are in intimate and long-term contact with body tissues.

Plastics packaging is not only safe but public health benefits from it.

Reviewed on 21 May 2019