FDA must set limits on PFAS in food, claims a lawsuit by an environmental group in Tucson, Arizona

A lawsuit was filed by an environmental group in Tucson, Arizona, stating that the US regulators are failing to address concerns about toxic PFAS chemicals in foods despite having the scientific tools to do so, The New Ledge reported. The lawsuit was filed on Jan. 24 in the US District Court of Arizona, following the submission of a legal petition filed in November 2023 by the Tucson Environmental Justice Task Force that asked the FDA to establish limits for PFAS. The group wants the FDA to take action to remove products from grocery store shelves if PFAS residues are found at the minimum level of detection. The petition cites connections between seven types of PFAS and “serious life-threatening health effects,” including kidney and liver damage, cancer, neurotoxicity, immunotoxicity, and adverse reproductive effects. The FDA has been testing foods for PFAS contamination since 2019 but so far says it has found very little contamination. In an update of April 2024, the FDA said that exposure to PFAS at the levels it measured in the samples “is not likely to be a health concern for young children or the general population, based on evaluation of each PFAS for which there is a toxicological reference value. In 2023, the organization Alliance for Natural Health USA tested eight kale samples purchased from grocery stores in New York, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona, finding PFAS in all but one sample. In 2024, the Consumer Reports tested 50 samples of whole milk from five states known to have PFAS contamination in their groundwater. They found two particularly harmful PFAS chemicals, PFOS and PFOA, in six samples. As the new Trump administration begins, it’s “anybody’s guess” whether or not the FDA will fulfill the petition’s request to set limits on PFAS in foods. @ https://www.thenewlede.org/2025/01/fda-must-set-limits-on-pfas-in-food-lawsuit-says/

 

 

 FDA must set limits on PFAS in food, lawsuit says
FDA must set limits on PFAS in food, lawsuit says

By Shannon Kelleher US regulators are failing to address concerns about toxic PFAS chemicals in foods despite having the scientific tools to do so, according to a lawsuit filed by an environmental group in Tucson, Arizona. The lawsuit, filed on Jan. 24 in the US District Court for the District of Arizona, follows the submission of a legal petition filed in November 2023 by the Tucson Environmental Justice Task Force that asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to establish limits for certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) the agency has found in blueberries, lettuce, milk, salmon and other foods. The group wants the FDA to take action to remove products from grocery store shelves if PFAS residues are found at the minimum level of detection possible. “We’re asking to do something that they are required to do under the law, that they failed to do under the law,” said Sandra Daussin, attorney for the plaintiffs and a plaintiff herself. Under its own regulations, the FDA is required to respond to petitions within 180 days, but the agency failed to address the petition after more than a year, an “arbitrary and capricious” delay, the complaint alleges. PFAS are a class of thousands of chemicals used for decades across many industries. The chemicals have become ubiquitous in the environment, found in water, soil and the blood of animals and people around the globe. Many types of PFAS have been found to be health hazards, linked to disease and disability. The petition cites connections between seven types of PFAS and “serious life-threatening health effects,” including kidney and liver damage, cancer, neurotoxicity, immunotoxicity, and adverse reproductive effects. The petitioners argue that in August 2023 the FDA developed a validated method detecting up to 30 PFAS chemicals in foods, and thus has an obligation to use that knowledge to set enforceable limits. The group wants the FDA to adjust those limits to be lower if methodology improves to detect smaller concentrations. The FDA has been testing foods for PFAS contamination since 2019 but has found very little contamination.

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