FDA Rejects PFAS Food-Limit Petition Despite 70% Seafood Contamination Findings

Q: Did a 2019 change in FDA testing methods make it harder to detect dangerous PFAS levels in our food?

Yes—at least according to critics cited in the dispute, the FDA’s 2019 methodological change appears to have made routine screening less sensitive to lower and moderate PFAS contamination in food, even as the agency says its overall PFAS testing program has expanded. The key distinction is between breadth and sensitivity. The FDA says that since 2019 it has validated methods that can test for more PFAS compounds across more kinds of foods, eventually expanding from 16 to 30 chemicals. That means the agency’s analytical reach improved in some respects. But public health advocates, consumer groups, and former USDA food safety official Brian Ronholm argue the 2019 adjustment also raised the practical detection threshold, so the method now mainly flags only very high contamination. If that is correct, foods with lower or moderate PFAS levels—levels that may still matter for health because PFAS can accumulate in the body—could be missed or undercounted. The news reporting does not provide the FDA’s full technical rebuttal to that criticism, and the agency continues to say it is actively developing better methods. So it would be too strong to say it is definitively proven that the 2019 change made detection harder in every sense. What the evidence does support is this: there is a credible, unresolved dispute. The FDA improved the number of PFAS it can test for, but critics say the 2019 method became less capable of detecting contamination at levels that may still be dangerous.

3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 8

The FDA turned down a petition to set enforceable PFAS limits in food, rejecting a narrowed 2025 request covering PFOA and PFOS in seafood and milk after missing its original six-month response deadline.
The agency said there is insufficient evidence and plans non-binding “action levels” instead of legal tolerance limits, which would make it illegal to sell food above a set contamination threshold.
Testing cited by advocates shows 70% of seafood samples and 12% of 50 milk samples contained PFAS, while EPA has found food is the biggest source of exposure and some single servings can rival many glasses of contaminated water.
Tucson Environmental Justice Task Force, which first petitioned in November 2023, called the decision disappointing and plans to sue to force the FDA to set thresholds.
The setback leaves a major gap in US PFAS regulation, which has focused more on drinking water even as the chemicals enter food through pesticides, packaging, sewage sludge and polluted processing water.