Clinical Report: Holding Steady: Lessons from the PFAS Front Line

Overview

The article describes the practical challenges of testing food for PFAS, including the lack of an EPA method specifically designed for food and the need for laboratories to develop and validate workflows, sometimes for individual food matrices. Scientists with established testing programs share firsthand lessons about setbacks, reliable testing, and the changes they believe are still needed as target lists and regulatory expectations evolve. FDA and AOAC developments described in the supplied context indicate progress toward standardized food-testing methods.

Background

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent chemicals found in a range of environmental and consumer contexts, including food packaging and food. Food testing has faced methodological uncertainty because environmental methods do not directly resolve the need for validated workflows across food matrices. The article situates laboratory practice amid evolving regulation, possible increases in testing requirements, and rising consumer litigation. FDA reports that it has tested more than 1,900 foods since 2019 and has made available a single-laboratory validated method for measuring 30 PFAS in human and animal foods.

Data Highlights

Key Findings

• The article reports that food laboratories lack an EPA method specifically designed for PFAS analysis in food, so they often develop and validate their own workflows, sometimes for individual matrices.
• Scientists with established PFAS testing programs describe initial surprises, setbacks, and lessons learned while working toward reliable results using Agilent systems.
• The expert panel discusses advice for laboratories starting PFAS testing and identifies expanding target lists and evolving regulatory expectations as continuing challenges.
• FDA reports that PFAS were not detected above method detection limits in over 95% of Total Diet Study foods tested, while detections were more frequent in seafood: 69% of Total Diet Study seafood and 74% in a 2022 targeted seafood survey.
• FDA evaluates foods with detected PFAS case by case using toxicological reference values for 10 PFAS, and reports risk-management actions that include recalls and Import Alert 99-48 for certain clams.
• The supplied FDA and AOAC context reports that the FDA method for 30 PFAS met AOAC SMPR 2023.003 and was recommended for adoption as AOAC Official Method First Action 2025.06 across specified food and feed categories.

Clinical Implications

The article focuses on laboratory testing practice rather than patient diagnosis or treatment. For clinical follow-up after suspected PFAS exposure, the supplied National Academies context recommends offering blood testing to patients likely to have a history of elevated exposure and using the sum of selected PFAS in serum or plasma to guide care.

Conclusion

The article presents food PFAS testing as a developing field in which laboratories have relied on validated, matrix-specific workflows while regulatory expectations and target lists evolve. FDA and AOAC method developments described in the supplied context mark progress toward standardized analysis across food categories.

Related Resources & Content

1. the analytical scientist, Source not specified, Year not specified -- Holding Steady: Lessons from the PFAS Front Line
2. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA -- Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)
3. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine -- Guidance on PFAS Exposure, Testing, and Clinical Follow-Up
4. the analytical scientist, 2026 -- Confronting the Messy Reality of PFAS Regulation
5. the analytical scientist, 2026 -- PFAS: New Frontiers, Emerging Solutions
6. the analytical scientist, 2024 -- PFAS Remediation: Do We Have the Solutions to the Forever Problem?
7. the analytical scientist — PFAS: The Year So Far
8. Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) | FDA
9. Guidance on PFAS Exposure, Testing, and Clinical Follow-Up
10. Confronting the Messy Reality of PFAS Regulation
11. PFAS: New Frontiers, Emerging Solutions
12. PFAS Remediation: Do We Have the Solutions to the Forever Problem?
13. Unravelling the magnitude and drivers of PFAS trophic magnification: a meta-analysis | Nature Communications