Pizza is one of the most commonly delivered foods. It comes in colorful, recyclable and customizable boxes. However, a recent announcement from FDA revealed that these pizza boxes are being banned due to the health hazards that can be caused by three chemicals found in them.
Just a few days ago, the Food and Drug Association (FDA) announced that it is going to ban three chemicals that are usually found in food packages such as microwaveable popcorn bags and pizza boxes. These chemicals were identified as three types of perfluoroalkyl ethyl substances that are used to give the paper a coat that can repel water and oil from fatty foods, thus preventing it from getting destroyed while the food is on its way.
The three chemicals that are being banned by the FDA are diethanolamine salts, pentanoic acid and perfluoroalkyl substituted phosphate ester acids. According to FDA, continuous consumptions of foods that made contact with these substances can cause cancer and brain defects, especially in babies and fetuses that are still inside their mother's wombs.
In a report published by the Bloomberg Bureau of National Affairs, they found out that the evidence for such claims have been around and unnoticed for 10 years and that manufacturers have already stopped producing these harmful chemicals. The Environmental Working Group, on the other hand, saw the FDA's moves as hollow and very late.
In a recent statement made by EWG's President Ken Cook on Bloomberg, he stated that industrial chemicals that have the capacity to harm and infect people's blood should have no place in the packaging of a food. He also pointed out how it took 10 years for the FDA to figure out that substances like these three exist in pizza boxes.
