Food Contact Materials and Human Health: Evaluation of Human Exposure and Role of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals

Food Contact Materials have a very important function in our daily lives as they are used to contain and preserve food. During the production process of food packaging, various substances are used to improve the physicochemical properties of the materials. In addition to intentionally added substances, there are unintentionally added substances, the toxicity of which is often not sufficiently studied and monitored among these several plasticizers like bisphenols and phthalates that are recognized as endocrine disruptors. Thus, the aim of my thesis was to study these compounds in the most commonly used food packaging items and in urine samples from subjects participating in research studies. The first step was the analysis of 152 food packaging items using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF). This analysis revealed the presence of 688 different compounds. Plasticizers, including bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and bisphenols such as bisphenol A (BPA) and bisphenol S (BPS), were the most commonly identified compounds. In particular, bisphenols were predominantly detected in paper packaging (17% of samples) compared to plastic packaging (2.5% of samples) due to the high use of recycled paper in the packaging made of paper and cardboard, while phthalates were highly detected both in plastic (23.5% of samples) and paper (18% of samples) packages. The exposure of the Italian population, in particular women and children, to DEHP and BPA was investigated in the biomonitoring study, LIFE PERSUADED. The analyzes showed widespread exposure to both DEHP and BPA among Italian adult women. Since phthalates, particularly DEHP metabolites, have been associated with metabolic diseases such as diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease, a third study investigated the association between exposure to DEHP and altered metabolomic profiles in subjects with type 2 diabetes (T2D). There was a strong correlation between DEHP metabolites, but not BPA, impaired glycemic control, and increased circulating metabolomic markers of liver diseases. The results of this thesis highlight the presence of many potentially harmful compounds in food packaging materials and a significant exposure of the general population to these compounds. Given their implication with the development and progression of metabolic diseases these results underline the importance of stringent monitoring and regulation of food contact materials to safeguard public health.