Consumers have become increasingly aware of the importance of consuming healthy food but these efforts can be nulled because of the toxic chemicals present in many food packaging. Scientists writing for a commentary published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health Feb. 19, have warned that toxic chemicals found in many food packaging may be leach into our food and lead to long term damages to our health.

In their commentary "Food packaging and migration of food contact materials: will epidemiologists rise to the neotoxic challenge?", scientists have called for an investigation of the health risks associated with food contact materials (FCMs).

Scientist Jane Muncke, from the Food Packaging Forum Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland and her colleagues, who authored the commentary pointed out that there are reasons to be concerned about FCM's as known toxic chemicals are used in these materials.

The authors pointed out that formaldehyde, a substance classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as known human carcinogen and is linked to sinus cancer and leukemia, is used in materials found in melamine tableware and fizzy-drink bottles albeit in low levels.

The scientists also said that chemicals that could disrupt hormone production such as bisphenol A, tributyltin, triclosan and phthalates are also present in FCMs and that there are more than 4,000 chemical substances intentionally used in FCMs.

"Whereas the science for some of these substances is being debated and policy makers struggle to satisfy the needs of stakeholders, consumers remain exposed to these chemicals daily, mostly unknowingly," the authors said.

Some scientists, however, criticized the report. Ian Musgrave, a senior lecturer in the medicine faculty at the University of Adelaide in Australia said that although formaldehyde is known as a carcinogen, it is found naturally in certain foods.

"To consume as much formaldehyde as is present in a 100-gram apple, you would need to drink at least 20 litres of mineral water that had been stored in PET [polyethylene terephthalate] bottles. Obviously the concern about formaldehyde from food packaging is significantly overrated, unless we are willing to place 'potential cancer hazard' stickers on fresh fruit and vegetables," Musgrave said.

Andy Smith, a scientist at the MRC Toxicology Unit in Leicester, England, has likewise pointed out that regulators had the issue under control. "Contamination of food by packaging is not a new issue and is already the subject of European and other studies. Many of the chemicals detected already are of such low levels that they are likely to pose no significant risk to consumers," he said.