# Chemicals of Concern

When evaluating the health impact of a food packaging item, the UP Scorecard essentially considers the presence of hazardous chemicals and whether they are likely to migrate from the food contact material to the food or beverage content. In more detail, the following criteria contribute to the final COC score:

* **Compliance statement**: are there any chemicals of concern, that are intentionally added during manufacturing? We provide a [list of chemicals of concern](https://upscorecard.org/fccprio). The chemicals of concern within this list are prioritized and grouped into four tiers, where Tier 1 presents a shortlist of priority chemicals of concern to avoid, and Tiers 2, 3, and 4 present more extensive sets of chemicals that should not be used in the manufacture of food contact materials.
* What is the **disclosure level** for the compliance statement?
* Migration potential: How **inert** is the material?
* **Food/material interaction**: How do the container and food interact?

By default, the UP Scorecard considers that all food contact materials contain at least one chemical of concern from Tier 1.

<table><thead><tr><th width="116.75"></th><th width="199">Default</th><th width="116.783447265625">Customizable?</th><th width="384">Comment</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Compliance statement</td><td>Intentionally contains at least one COC identified in Tier 1</td><td>Yes</td><td>If the user has any information about the intentional utilization of COCs, they can declare compliance with one or more COC tiers.</td></tr><tr><td>Disclosure level</td><td>Supplier is unable to provide information about in-scope chemicals of concern in the materials within the foodware or packaging component</td><td>Yes</td><td>The user can support their compliance statement with different levels of reliability (from self-declaration to third-party verified declaration).</td></tr><tr><td>Inertness</td><td>Glass, steel &#x26;<br>ceramic: best score<br>All other materials:<br>lowest score</td><td>No</td><td>See <a href="/pages/0utv5ZXcKAS4YQv2kEC3#material-inertness">Inertness</a> explanation.</td></tr><tr><td>Food and<br>material<br>interaction</td><td>Worst case food:<br>hot, oily, acidic soup</td><td>Yes</td><td>Users may either select one of the predefined food or drink options, or create their own (see <a href="/pages/4T07rCT63Hr20hArtlDO">Food or beverage content</a>)</td></tr></tbody></table>

The Chemicals of Concern information can be changed when [creating a new product](/using-the-tool/customization/how-to-customize/create-a-new-product.md) or [editing an existing product](/using-the-tool/customization/how-to-customize/edit-an-existing-product.md).


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