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According to FSA mineral oils don’t constitute any danger to the health of consumers. 05 - 01 - 2012 On December 16, 2011 the British Agency for Food Standards (Food Standards Agency; FSA) reported that mineral oils in cardboard food packaging do not pose a threat to the health of consumers.
Research of 350 food products allayed fears over the presence of minerals in food packaging and is likely to be favorably noted by industry representatives. FSA noted in its statement that "consumers have no need to change their eating habits."
Mineral oils were the headlines in March this year when it emerged that a number of grain manufacturers is considering changes to the packaging material. It happened shortly after the Swiss government scientists issued a statement that mineral oils migrate from recycled cardboard into food products. Mineral oils can cause cancer and inflammation of organs. Nevertheless, representatives of the packaging industry, referring to earlier FSA indications, consistently argued that such a level of oils’ transfer which would represent a risk to human health, wasn’t discovered there.
Manufacturers of corrugated boxes also carefully treated this situation despite the fact that this message should have frighten representatives of cardboard and paper sector firstly. Today's FSA announcement marks the completion of oils’ review process, which was mainly tied to a presence of newsprint inks in a recycled cardboard, as well as photoinitiators in the ink.
Dr. Allison Glidl (Alison Gleadle), FSA Food Safety Director said: "This research shows that food packaging may contain one or more species of mineral oils. However, we concluded that we can not name the specific problems in food safety that is based on the oils’ content level. Thus, people don’t have to change their eating habits based on these results."
Neal Uipp, BPIF Cartons’ general manager said "food manufacturers throughout Europe will be a free hand after the FSA statement of the reasons and the proportions of possible substances’ migration from packaging into food products. In 2011, cardboard industry representatives continued exploring the possibility of migration and developing new varieties of recycled and pure cardboard, that was intended to improve food safety. Now you can confidently enjoy positive properties of boxes."
FSA research affected 350 food products that were packaged in primary and secondary cardboard packaging. Components of the ink contained in 27 food products’ samples. FSA stated that the potential risk to the health of consumers due to the level of ink was then evaluated, but "any risk to health wasn’t identified."
FSA also reviewed 51 of 350 cardboard packaging copies for the presence of different oils’ types. Everywhere it was at least one such mineral and sometimes more. Again, the concentration detected didn’t carry a potential hazard to human health.
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