PFAS in Food Packaging: What the New EU Rules Mean

Food packaging is designed to keep oil, water, and sauces from soaking through. For years, some manufacturers achieved that performance with PFAS—a large family of highly persistent chemicals often called “forever chemicals.”

That practice is now facing tighter limits in Europe. On August 12, 2026, restrictions on PFAS in food-contact packaging began applying across the European Union under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. The change is timely for anyone who buys takeaway meals, microwave popcorn, bakery products, or other foods wrapped in grease-resistant paper.

The new rule does not mean every wrapper previously contained PFAS, nor does it mean packaging is the largest source of PFAS exposure for everyone. It does create a clear reason to understand where these chemicals have been used and what consumers can realistically do.

What Are PFAS?

PFAS stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. It describes thousands of chemicals valued for properties such as resistance to grease, water, heat, and stains.

Those same properties can make many PFAS extremely slow to break down. They may persist in soil, water, wildlife, and people long after their original use. Exposure can come from several routes, including contaminated drinking water, food grown or raised in contaminated areas, consumer products, and some food-contact materials.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) says food packaging can contribute to PFAS exposure through migration into food. However, EFSA also notes that packaging's contribution is generally small compared with other sources. Fish, eggs, contaminated water, and the wider environment can be important contributors depending on local conditions.

Why PFAS Were Used in Food Packaging

PFAS-based treatments have been useful in paper and paperboard that need to resist moisture or fat. The European Commission lists examples including:

Takeaway containers
Fast-food wrappers
Microwave popcorn bags
Bakery papers
Pizza boxes
Other grease-resistant paper packaging

Their presence is not usually obvious. A plain brown fiber bowl may look more natural than a plastic container while still requiring a barrier treatment. Appearance alone cannot tell you which coating or process was used.

PFAS used in packaging are also not food ingredients, so you should not expect to find “PFAS” in the food's ingredient list. This is an important limit of label reading: the ingredient panel helps explain what is intentionally added to the food, but not every chemical used to make its packaging.

What Changed in the EU in August 2026?

Article 5 of Regulation (EU) 2025/40 establishes three concentration limits for PFAS in food-contact packaging placed on the EU market from August 12, 2026:

25 parts per billion (ppb) for any individual PFAS measured through targeted analysis, excluding polymeric PFAS from that measurement
250 ppb for the sum of PFAS measured through targeted analysis, with precursor degradation where applicable and polymeric PFAS excluded
50 parts per million (ppm) for total PFAS, including polymeric PFAS

These are technical compliance thresholds for manufacturers, importers, and authorities—not numbers consumers are expected to test at home.

European Commission guidance clarifies that food-contact packaging placed on the market after August 12, 2026 must meet the limits. Packaging placed on the market before that date may remain available and does not need to be withdrawn. The guidance also describes a stepwise testing approach because there is not yet one harmonized analytical method for every packaging matrix.

In practical terms, the rule is a market restriction rather than a consumer recall. You may still encounter older compliantly marketed stock during the transition.

How the EU Approach Compares With the United States

The United States took a different path. In February 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that manufacturers were no longer selling PFAS-containing grease-proofing substances for use on paper and paperboard food packaging in the U.S. market. FDA described this as the completion of voluntary phase-outs combined with earlier regulatory actions.

In January 2025, FDA determined that 35 related food-contact notifications were no longer effective because the uses had been abandoned. That does not mean sensitive laboratory testing could never detect fluorine or PFAS in U.S. packaging. FDA notes that PFAS may occur as an impurity or environmental contaminant and that some broad fluorine tests cannot distinguish PFAS from every other fluorinated substance.

The distinction matters: “no longer sold for an authorized grease-proofing use” is more precise than saying all U.S. food packaging is guaranteed PFAS-free.

What the Health Evidence Does—and Does Not—Say

PFAS are a broad family, and individual compounds differ in persistence, toxicity, and the quality of available evidence. It is misleading to treat every PFAS as if it had an identical risk profile.

EFSA established a group tolerable weekly intake of 4.4 nanograms per kilogram of body weight for four PFAS: PFOA, PFNA, PFHxS, and PFOS. Its assessment used reduced immune response to vaccination as the most critical effect. EFSA has also concluded that parts of the European population exceed that group intake from all dietary sources combined.

This does not establish that eating one takeaway meal causes harm. Risk depends on the specific compounds, dose, frequency, duration, and total exposure from many sources. The value of packaging restrictions is preventive: reducing a persistent chemical at the source can lower avoidable exposure and environmental release over time.

Can You Identify PFAS-Free Packaging?

There is no universal consumer label for PFAS-free food packaging. Claims such as “compostable,” “plant-based,” or “plastic-free” describe other attributes and do not automatically answer whether PFAS were used.

If a restaurant or food company makes a “no intentionally added PFAS” claim, look for details about its scope and verification. That wording is often more realistic than “zero PFAS,” because modern testing may detect trace contamination unrelated to intentional treatment.

Useful questions for a supplier or restaurant include:

Is this packaging made without intentionally added PFAS?
Does the claim cover the coating, ink, adhesive, and molded fiber—not just the base paper?
Has the packaging been tested by an independent laboratory?
Does it comply with the EU food-contact packaging limits now in effect?

Practical Ways to Reduce Packaging Exposure

You do not need to eliminate takeaway food or discard every paper container. A few measured habits can reduce contact with grease-resistant disposable packaging:

Use reusable glass or stainless steel containers when a restaurant permits them.
Transfer hot or fatty food at home instead of storing or reheating it in disposable packaging for long periods.
Avoid microwaving packaging unless it is specifically designed for that use. Moving food to a suitable glass or ceramic dish also reduces uncertainty about coatings and inks.
Ask brands focused questions. “No intentionally added PFAS” is more informative than vague terms such as “eco-friendly.”
Vary your diet and food sources. EFSA emphasizes that packaging is only one possible exposure route; contaminated water and certain foods may contribute more.
Follow local water guidance if you live near a known PFAS contamination site. Packaging changes cannot solve exposure from contaminated drinking water.

Do not try to test wrappers with oil droplets, marker pens, or other home experiments. Grease resistance can come from PFAS-free barriers, and informal tests cannot identify a chemical family or measure regulatory compliance.

How Toxic Scan Fits In

Toxic Scan can help you understand the ingredients printed on a food or household-product label. It cannot determine the chemical composition of a wrapper from an ingredient panel, so packaging questions still require manufacturer information or verified testing.

Used together, ingredient awareness and better packaging questions provide a more complete view. You can also read our guide to identifying chemicals in everyday products and our overview of BPA in canned foods for other food-contact considerations.

The Bottom Line

The EU's new PFAS limits are a meaningful source-control measure for food-contact packaging. They apply to packaging newly placed on the EU market from August 12, 2026, while older stock already placed on the market may remain available.

For consumers, the most useful response is practical rather than fearful: prefer reusable containers when convenient, avoid unnecessary heating in disposable packaging, look for specific supplier claims, and remember that food packaging is only one part of overall PFAS exposure.

References

European Commission. (2026). “New EU Rules on Packaging Enter into Application.” Directorate-General for Environment. https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news/new-eu-rules-packaging-enter-application-2026-08-11_en 2. European Commission. (2026). “Guidance Document for Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on Packaging and Packaging Waste.” EUR-Lex. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52026XC03084 3. European Food Safety Authority. (2026). “Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS).” EFSA. https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/per-and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances-pfas 4. European Parliament and Council of the European Union. (2025). “Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on Packaging and Packaging Waste.” EUR-Lex. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2025/40/oj 5. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2025). “Market Phase-Out of Grease-Proofing Substances Containing PFAS.” FDA. https://www.fda.gov/food/process-contaminants-food/market-phase-out-grease-proofing-substances-containing-pfas