What are some examples of chemicals in food?

Wondering which plastic containers to avoid and which are safe to eat from? How to learn about chemicals in food packaging? Or how to make sure you are buying BPA-free foods? Do you assume all plastic food packaging is recyclable? These questions ­— and so much more — are all answered in our recently published FoodPrint of Food Packaging Report.

But sometimes you just want an answer, not to read a report, and we get that. Which is why we recently held a Twitter chat with Dr. Martin Mulvihill, researcher and advisor at the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry and general partner with Safer Made, a mission-driven venture capital fund that invests in companies that remove or reduce the use of harmful chemicals in products and manufacturing processes. As a consultant on FoodPrint’s packaging report, Mulvihill was the perfect person to break down the nitty-gritty of food packaging and answer all our questions about “forever chemicals,” recycling and more.

Mulvihill shared his expertise with our audience about all things food packaging, and we’ve gathered his answers here: