Exposure to hazardous chemicals can contribute to non-communicable diseases and remains a key challenge in public health. Most chemicals used in consumer products, including in food packaging, lack sufficient data to know whether they are fully safe. Current testing approaches are unable to effectively check for all possible health outcomes, and many testing requirements only check for genotoxicity and examine one substance at a time. However, widespread evidence shows that consumers are simultaneously exposed to complex mixtures of different chemicals from all types of products.
In a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Environment International, scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the Food Packaging Forum have made significant progress in developing a robust approach for the identification of chemical hazards using an informed selection of in vitro bioassays. This is part of the co-creation project CoModHaz , led by Prof. Escher of UFZ. The project’s goal is to develop high-throughput, animal-free testing methods for hazard screening of chemicals, their transformation products, and mixtures. The Food Packaging Forum is a project partner in CoModHaz, together with regulators and industry stakeholders.
In the study, the researchers mapped 266 Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs) to propose a practical, high-throughput testing approach to screen chemicals for their potential contribution to causing cancer, reproductive disorders, metabolic disease, immunological disorders, cardiovascular disease, and brain-related disorders.
By analyzing these pathways as networks, the researchers identified biological events where they diverge, converge, and can play a central role in promoting the different diseases. Through the analysis, they identified a set of 15 high-throughput bioassay tests that can be used to check if a product on the market is toxic and could contribute to any of these diseases in consumers.
An example use case of the new tests would be to check food packaging available on the market for the chemical safety of the many often unknown (and therefore untested) non-intentionally added substances they can contain.
In a next step, the proposed bioassay tests need to be validated to determine their effectiveness in flagging known hazardous chemicals. A study testing food contact chemicals from food packaging using this approach is already underway. The proposed tests are a pragmatic and promising starting point that can evolve as new knowledge and testing technology become available to better protect consumers.
For more information or to speak with the authors, please contact :
Joel Scheuchzer, Communications Officer, +41 44 515 52 55, joel.scheuchzer@fp-forum.org
Quotes from authors :
Dr. Sarah Stevens, lead author of the study from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research said:
"By translating these prioritized endpoints into in-vitro assays suitable for high-throughput screening, we are making the results here actionable. The proposed panel of 15 assays could enable much broader toxicological screening of chemicals than is currently standard practice. This would be a significant improvement in protecting public health from hazardous chemicals present across a wide range of products we use daily."
Dr. Jane Muncke, co-author of the study from the Food Packaging Forum said:
"This research is an important milestone in improving the way we test chemicals. New testing methods like this can lead to breakthroughs in disease prevention, because they enable systematic identification of exposures to hazardous chemicals in everyday products.”
Study : Stevens, S., Muncke, J., Escher, B. I. (2026). Mapping disease-linked AOPs to inform bioassay selection for chemical hazard assessment. Environment International. DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2026.110465
About the Food Packaging Forum : The Food Packaging Forum Foundation (FPF) is an independent, charitable, non-profit foundation registered and based in Zurich, Switzerland. FPF enables stakeholders to make better decisions by applying the latest science on chemicals in food contact materials and on the environmental impacts of food packaging. Through its independent, balanced, and science-based publications and tools, the Food Packaging Forum contributes to protecting human and environmental health.
Environment International
Mapping disease-linked AOPs to inform bioassay selection for chemical hazard assessment
16-Aug-2026
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.