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News|Videos|April 22, 2024

Thermo Fisher PFAS Expert Discusses Laboratory Testing, Regulatory Partnerships

On this Earth Day, LCGC sits down with Toby Astill of Thermo Fisher Scientific to talk about laboratory testing of PFAS and how companies and industry work in tandem with governments and regulatory agencies to share information and effect changes in standards.

In February of this year, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) banned manufacturers from selling grease-proofing substances containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) for food contact use (1).

The presence of PFAS in these items has been under increased investigation in recent years, and laboratories such as Thermo Fisher Scientific are contributing to the ongoing research in this field using techniques based in chromatography and mass spectrometry.

LCGC International caught up with Toby Astill, Thermo Fisher's Director for Food and Environmental Safety Vertical Marketing in its Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry Division, about the relationships between laboratories and regulators, and how much further the research must advance.

Reference

(1) U.S. Food & Drug Administration. FDA Announces PFAS Used in Grease-Proofing Agents for Food Packaging No Longer Being Sold in the U.S., last revised February 2024. https://www.fda.gov/food/cfsan-constituent-updates/fda-announces-pfas-used-grease-proofing-agents-food-packaging-no-longer-being-sold-us (accessed 2024-04-17).

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