Food safety matters continue to take center stage across the entire supply chain. Over the last two decades, a series of high-profile international food safety concerns—from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), listeria, dioxin and other toxins—have given rise to industry-driven initiatives such as the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) and other legislative actions around the world. The goals of GFSI have been to reduce risk throughout the food supply chain, implement consistent standards globally and restore confidence in the safety of the food delivered to consumers worldwide.
More recently, the food safety concern has extended beyond cases of intentional and unintentional contamination of the food itself to migration of materials from packaging, such as additives from ink, coatings and adhesives into the food. Standards and procedures to evaluate and address migration vary, and the EU in particular is reevaluating this issue. For example, EU adhesive producers are concerned with plasticizer migration.1,6,9