From Waste to Safety: Green Chemistry Solutions for Food Packaging Pollution and Environmental Food Safety Monitoring

Food packaging materials, predominantly petroleum-based plastics such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene (PE), and polypropylene (PP), constitute one of the most voluminous and environmentally persistent waste streams globally. Their improper disposal contaminates agricultural soils, water bodies, and food supply chains, introducing chemical hazards — including plastic-derived additives, microplastics, and co-leached heavy metals — into human diets. Simultaneously, conventional food safety monitoring frameworks in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) remain fragmented, under-resourced, and insufficiently sensitive to capture emerging contaminants migrating from packaging into food matrices. Bridging green chemistry innovation with robust environmental monitoring is therefore not merely an academic exercise, but an urgent necessity for protecting public health, enabling sustainable food systems, and fulfilling international regulatory obligations under evolving global food safety standards.This Research Topic aims to consolidate cutting-edge advances in two strategically interconnected domains: the green chemical valorization and recycling of food packaging plastics, and the environmental monitoring of food safety risks attributable to packaging-derived contamination. Despite significant progress in deep eutectic solvent (DES)-catalyzed depolymerization, microwave-assisted chemical recycling, and bio-based packaging alternatives, a critical knowledge gap persists between laboratory-scale green chemistry breakthroughs and their translation into scalable, policy-relevant food safety solutions. This collection seeks to close that gap by inviting contributions that link chemical recycling efficiency and selectivity with life cycle assessment, dietary exposure surveillance, and regulatory impact. Recent advances in NADES-MAE extraction, ICP-MS-based contaminant detection, machine learning-assisted pollutant monitoring, and in vitro bioaccessibility modeling offer powerful new tools to achieve this integration. By uniting chemists, food scientists, toxicologists, and environmental engineers within a single thematic collection, this Research Topic will generate a cross-disciplinary body of evidence to inform both industrial practice and public health policy.This Research Topic welcomes original research articles, systematic reviews, and perspectives addressing the chemistry, environmental fate, and health implications of food packaging materials, as well as innovative monitoring and remediation strategies. • Green and microwave-assisted chemical recycling of post-consumer food-grade plastics using deep eutectic solvents• Development and characterization of bio-based and biodegradable packaging alternatives• Migration of packaging-derived contaminants (heavy metals, plasticizers, monomers, microplastics) into food matrices• Analytical and computational methods for contaminant detection and speciation• Dietary exposure assessment and health risk modelling in LMIC populations• Environmental monitoring of food supply chain contamination in agricultural and aquatic ecosystems• Life cycle assessment of green recycling pathwaysStudies integrating experimental and computational methodologies, and those with explicit relevance to developing nations and SDG-aligned sustainability frameworks, are particularly encouraged. Topic editors: Dr. Md Al Mamunur Rashid, Mobinul Islam, Akhmad Irhas Robby Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/83933/from-waste-to-safety-green-chemistry-solutions-for-food-packaging-pollution-and-environmental-food-safety-monitoring