Is our food wrapped in poison?

Polyfluorinated surfactants (PFS) are a group of anthropogenic chemicals which are used for a multitude of industrial and end‐use purposes due to their unique properties of being both water and oil repellent, highly surfactant, and resistant towards degradation. Commonly known PFS materials are: Goretex, Teflon, and fire fighting foams, but they are also used in food paper and board, to prevent the packaging from being soiled or from soaking up fat or water. However, over the past decade, evidence has shown that the highly bioaccumulative perfluorinated PFS (perPFS) are present worldwide in the environment and in humans, and that perPFS are correlated to adverse health effects such as endocrine and metabolic disruption. It is therefore of interest to map the sources of perPFS, which are suspected to be degradation products of the commercially used polyfluorinated PFS (polyPFS). However, before the contribution of the various sources can be determined, specific screening and quantification methods must be eveloped for the commercial PFS which at present are d not included in common measuring methods.