More Worries About PFAS in Packaging

Food companies should not take EPA’s latest risky move as permission to allow chemicals of concern in packaging.

In November 2025, the US Environmental Protection Agency authorized the use of  pesticides containing cyclobutrifluram and isocycloseram, which are perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Confused and disheartened? You are not alone.

The packaging sector works hard to eliminate many chemicals of concern that may migrate from packaging into food. Allowing the use of a “forever chemical” to grow food and contaminate waterways and land is mystifying. 

It is easy to get bogged down in the debate on whether PFAS is defined as a single or double fluorinated carbon. This is because in 2023, the EPA classified PFAS as those chemicals containing two (not one) fluorinated carbons, even though the scientifically accepted definition of PFAS adopted by more than 24 states and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is for at least one.  

In 2020, the US military banned the use of PFAS in packaging, while PFAS in infant formula packaging was outlawed in 2021. Long- and then short-chain PFAS were authorized for use by the FDA. Then, in January of 2025, the FDA ruled to abandoned the use of 35 food contact notifications (FCNs) pertaining to PFAS-containing food contact chemicals as grease-proofers applied to paper and paperboard food packaging. This followed a voluntary market phase-out of PFAS. 

Now, 13 states have adopted, and nine states have introduced policies governing PFAS in packaging. These regulations limit PFAS from 0 to 100 parts per million. In California, any level of PFAS is “banned” because safe harbor limits do not exist for PFAS. 

More Worries About PFAS in Packaging