During the evening of Wednesday, May 3, 2023, the Initiative submitted comments to the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research (FFAR) in response to FFAR’s request for comments by May 5 on its “Research Strategy Refresh” –
The Initiative advised that:
A significant amount of plastic food packaging is “improperly discarded;” that is, it finds its way to land and waterways where it is left to naturally degrade into macro, micro and nano size plastic particles.
Improperly Discarded Plastic Food Packaging (IDPFP) is a food industry science, public affairs, and legislative/regulatory issue:
• Wildlife, including marine food sources, are exposed to IDPFP in their natural environment;
• Adverse biological effects of macro size plastic particles have been demonstrated;
• Adverse biological effect studies of micro and nano size plastic particles are underway; for some species, adverse biological effects have been demonstrated; currently, there are no known adverse human health effects from exposure to IDPFP from micro and nano size particles.
• Governments around the world are developing legislative and regulatory mandates to prevent the environmental release of IDPFP …
• Consumers are increasingly applying Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors to the companies from which they purchase consumer products and investors are applying ESG factors in their decision-making process.
• Lawsuits against companies for alleged false environmental claims.
• Recycling difficulties.
• Constant social and mainstream media attention.
To address these issues, the food industry should work with FFAR to establish a public private partnership for the discovery of new food packaging materials that would perform the same functions of plastic, but that when “Improperly Discarded” would be use as food by animals, including ubiquitous microorganisms.
The Initiative also advised that the Initiative would welcome an opportunity to present a PowerPoint which expands on the above reasons. #PlasticWaste #SingleUsePlastic #MicroPlastics @FoundationFAR