European chemicals regulators are weighing a German proposal to classify trifluoroacetic acid, or TFA, as toxic to reproduction, a move that is reviving scrutiny of Morocco’s 2024 findings on PFAS chemicals in fast-food wrappers and the absence of specific national limits on those substances in food-contact packaging.
The European Chemicals Agency is moving to classify trifluoroacetic acid, known as TFA, as toxic to human reproduction. The agency has been reviewing a German proposal to treat the compound, a member of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances family, or PFAS, as a reproductive hazard.
TFA is persistent, travels easily through water systems, and forms as a breakdown product when other PFAS compounds degrade.
No research has specifically tested for TFA in Morocco, but TFA does not stand alone. It belongs to a family of thousands of synthetic chemical, PFA, prized for their ability to repel grease, water, and heat, and already detected in food packaging sold in the country.
In 2024, the Moroccan Association for Health, Environment and Toxicovigilance, known as AMSETOX, partnered with the International Pollutants Elimination Network to test 119 single-use food packaging samples collected from 17 countries, including Morocco. Researchers screened for 58 specific PFAS compounds and for extractable organic fluorine, a broader marker for the chemicals’ presence.
The ruling’s significance reaches well beyond Europe. PFAS, a class of thousands of synthetic chemicals prized for their ability to repel grease, water, and heat, have been found in food packaging sold in Morocco, according to testing conducted by a Moroccan environmental health group.
In 2024, the Moroccan Association for Health, Environment and Toxicovigilance, known as AMSETOX, partnered with the International Pollutants Elimination Network to test 119 single-use food packaging samples collected from 17 countries, including Morocco. Researchers screened for 58 specific PFAS compounds and for extractable organic fluorine, a broader marker for the chemicals’ presence.
Sixty-four of the 119 samples, 53.8 percent, came back positive.
In Morocco, two samples purchased at random contained PFAS: a fries wrapper from an international fast-food chain and a cake wrapper from an international franchise operating in the country. AMSETOX notified both companies and alerted the relevant Moroccan government ministries.
Dr. Naima Rhalem, AMSETOX’s president, cautioned that the Moroccan samples were purchased at random and were not a comprehensive survey of the market. The findings were, nonetheless, enough to prompt formal notifications to both industry and government.
The health concerns around PFAS are not new, but they have grown more specific with time. Researchers have linked the chemicals to cancer, infertility, and disruption of the endocrine system, the network of hormones that regulates metabolism, growth, and reproduction.
The EU agency’s TFA proposal adds reproductive toxicity to that list, targeting a compound that has largely escaped the regulatory scrutiny applied to better-known PFAS.
Fast food is the primary market where PFAS-treated packaging is concentrated, and it is young consumers — heavy users of that market — who face the most sustained exposure.
Three PFAS compounds and their chemical relatives have been banned globally under international chemical conventions. But those agreements cover only a fraction of the family. The broader group remains inconsistently regulated, and the science continues to identify new members of it as hazardous.
In Morocco, a 2011 decree implements the country’s food safety law and a 2019 joint ministerial decree on food transport hygiene addresses packaging.
What neither regulation does, according to AMSETOX, is set limits on the chemical composition of food-contact packaging, meaning there is no domestic rule that would prevent PFAS-treated wrappers from reaching consumers.
“An improvement of the regulatory framework integrating PFAS is recommended to protect both consumer health and the environment,” Rhalem said, “by ensuring that food packaging is free from these substances.”
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