PFAS out of food packaging: three thresholds somebody has to measure
From 12 August 2026 food-contact packaging cannot enter the EU market if it exceeds the PFAS thresholds. There is no test standard for this determination — the Commission points to a two-step route.
- Thresholds from the EU packaging regulation: 25 ppb for any single PFAS and 250 ppb for their sum — both from targeted analysis, polymeric PFAS excluded — plus 50 ppm for PFAS in total, polymeric ones included.
- The recommended order of testing runs against intuition: total fluorine first. A result below 50 ppm closes the case, a higher one opens targeted analysis.
- Total fluorine is determined by combustion with ion chromatography detection (CIC), targeted analysis by liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), with precursors degraded beforehand.
- The difficulty sits exactly at the threshold: at 25 ppb measurement uncertainty decides whether the product complies, so laboratory background, reagent purity and single-use plastics all count.
- There is no harmonised standard for this determination. The Commission speaks of robust analytical methods, which puts the burden of proof on validation done in the laboratory.
- The packaging producer needs a report from an accredited laboratory for every packaging type — a repeating stream of samples, not a one-off test.
Source: EUR-Lex