MAPPING POTENTIAL HUMAN EXPOSURE TO PER- AND POLYFLUOROALKYL SUBSTANCES (PFAS) FROM DOMESTIC AND IMPORTED FOOD PACKAGING

The major goalof our project is to conduct the first systematic study of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) in imported and domestic packaged foods. We will specifically evaluate which PFAS are present in current food packaging, whether those PFAS vary according to the country of origin of the packaged foods and what risks these PFAS may pose to US consumers through migration into food and subsequent human exposure. PFAS are widely used to provide non-stick and oil repellency characteristics to food packaging, but several PFAS have now been identified as bioaccumulative and/or toxic. Unfortunately, there are a wide range of PFAS potentially used in food packaging and very little is known about their structural identity, propensity to migrate into foods, or potential to exert toxic impacts.We will pursue these goals through three complementary objectives:1. In the first objective we will survey local supermarkets and international food stores in order to determine the types and geographic origins of packaged foods available and representatively sample them (circa 100 packaged food samples total), with a focus on foods targeted to children and seniors as potentially vulnerable populations.2. In the second objective, we will conduct high-resolution non-target analysis of packaging subjected to extraction and migration experiments to identify major types of PFAS present in these samples, This non-target analysis will be followed by targeted analysis in order to quantify the major PFAS present.3. In the third objective, we will evaluate the potential toxicity of the identified PFAS and their mixtures using molecular modeling for initial screening and prioritizationfollowed by zebrafish embryo toxicity assays to validate and further expand upon the modeling predictions.Successful completion of our objectives will provide a highly useful data set to support risk assessment for PFAS in food packaging and identify potential exposure hot spots in our food system.