Following a request for rapid advice from the European Commission, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published a statement on the risks arising from the migration of the substance 4-methylbenzophenone from packaging into certain
breakfast cereals[1].
Riitta Maijala, EFSA’s Director of Risk
Assessment, said: “Although the migration of 4-methylbenzophenone from
packaging into foods is not desirable, only in the highest exposure scenario
considered[2] – regular consumption of products contaminated at the highest
levels reported so far – could some children possibly be at risk. However, there
are important limitations in our knowledge and understanding of
4-methylbenzophenone and further data and analysis would be needed to be able to
fully assess its safety.”
Based on the limited exposure data available
and applying knowledge on the toxicity of a similar substance, benzophenone,
EFSA concluded that short term consumption of contaminated breakfast cereals
should not pose a risk to most people. However, if the contamination of food
through the use of 4-methylbenzophenone in printing inks for food packaging were
to continue, more data would be needed in order to carry out a full risk
assessment.
Due to the lack of data available, EFSA was not able to fully
assess consumer exposure to
4-methylbenzophenone or its toxicological
effects in humans. However, given its chemical structure and toxicity studies on
benzophenone, EFSA concluded that 4-methylbenzophenone is likely to be a
carcinogen but should not raise concerns with regard to genotoxicity (i.e.
should not cause damage to DNA, the genetic material of cells).
