January 2026

Feb 25
5 min read

Food without Toxic Chemicals? What a Crazy Idea!

An excellent recent report, Invisible Ingredients: The Hidden Toxic Chemicals in our Food System, by Systemiq with the support of Grantham Foundation, zooms in on the use of phthalates, bisphenols, PFAS, and pesticides in food. The report builds on previous research and testing by PlasticList, Minderoo, Food Packaging Forum and research by leading scientists such as Shanna Swan, Philip Landrigan, Tracy Woodruff, Jane Munke, Linda Birnbaum, and others.

The report estimates that the use of harmful chemicals in the food supply chain costs nearly $3 trillion a year in global health and environmental damage, and calls for bans and phase-outs of the most harmful chemicals, greater testing and transparency, and accelerating innovation to create safer food contact materials.

Some regulators are acting. France plans to block imports of foods that contain banned pesticide residues. Colorado is banning the use of Neonicotinoid pesticides on seeds. California banned Chlorpyrifos, which has been shown to double the likelihood of Parkinson’s disease in farm workers. California is also further restricting the use of neonicotinoids and seeking to ban paraquat, which is already banned in 60 countries.

Testing and transparency could help reveal where, when, and how chronic toxicants are being introduced into the food supply chain. We would like to see local, state, and federal authorities test and mobilize in response to toxic chemicals in food in a similar fashion they test and mobilize in reaction to outbreaks of pathogens such as salmonella, listeria, or e-coli.

Making food safer will require the development of safer alternatives to toxic materials in food packaging, food processing, and in pest control. We outlined some of the key innovation challenges in food packaging in our 2019 report, “Safer Materials in Food Packaging“ and we continue to search for innovation and investment opportunities in the space. An interesting approach is Deep Science Ventures’ work to identify technologies that eliminate the use of harmful pesticides, and sponsor the formation and launch of new ventures to bring these new technologies to market.

Eyes on PFAS

When our colleagues at Green Science Policy Institute mentioned that soft contact lenses often contain PFAS, we had to dig a little deeper. Sure enough, fluoropolymers including polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), and ethylene tetrafluoroethylene copolymer (ETFE) are used in medical devices including in soft contact lens formulations. Fluoropolymers do provide high oxygen permeability, low surface energy, resistance to protein and other potential deposits, and good durability.

Environmental Health News and Mamavation conducted a study a couple of years ago and found PFAS chemicals present in quantities of up to and above 20,000 ppm in several contact lenses sold by some of the top brands. The lowest levels found were in the 100 ppm range.

Eiyan is a new contact lens brand that makes PFAS-free claims. They have third-party test results that show no detectable quantities for a wide range of common PFAS class chemicals. Eiyan does not explicitly test for, or mention the use of, the polymeric form of PFAS in their formulation, which is a little disappointing, as that form seems to be the more common form used in contact lenses. Nevertheless, it is exciting to see a challenger brand making PFAS-free claims and showing test results. We hope that this will encourage existing brands to test for and get rid of PFAS in their products.

EnVest Detox Investor Group

Envest is a community of active impact investors that supports member collaboration, helps the sharing of insights and investment opportunities by providing deal flow, programming, and technical support. Envest supports thematic investment areas, based on members’ interest, such as Energy, Oceans, Materials, Food and Agriculture, Built Environment, and Detox. The Detox working group was launched last year, and its members work together to support innovation that eliminates the use of hazardous chemicals. Please reach out to Jackie Moe if you would like to learn more.

Financings

A&B Smart Materials develops sustainable, biodegradable superabsorbent polymers for hygiene and agricultural applications, and raised $2 million.

Acelab creates software to help architects and designers research and select building materials, and raised $13.5 million.

Addis Energy is developing a clean ammonia production technology based on injecting water and nitrogen into iron-rich ore, and raised $8.3 million.

Aether Biomachines designs proteins for industrial and environmental applications, and raised $15 million.

Allonnia develops technologies that remove contaminants and improve mineral recovery, and raised $20+ million.

Altrove develops rare-earth-free and cobalt-free magnetic materials, and raised $10 million.

Amperesand develops medium voltage solid-state transformer power systems that eliminate the need for petroleum-based transformer oils, and raised $80 million.

Anaphite develops solvent-free electrode coating technology for electric vehicle batteries, and raised $1.8 million.

Ascribe Bio develops natural crop protection products, and raised $12 million.

Bindwell uses AI to discover new and safer pesticides, and raised $6 million.

Bit.bio is developing a human cell programming technology that could be used to eliminate the need for animal testing in toxicology, and raised $50 million.

Blue Current develops silicon solid-state batteries that do not need solvents, and raised $81 million.

Cambium develops advanced material composites for defense and aerospace markets, and raised $100 million.

Ecorobotix develops machinery to deliver precise crop spraying and reduce pesticide use, and raised $105 million.

Endolith uses microbes to extract copper and other critical minerals from low-grade and complex ores, and raised $13.5 million.

Fabric8Labs develops electrochemical additive manufacturing technology for high-precision metal components, and raised $50 million.

Filtrabit develops modular dust extraction systems that capture and recycle industrial microparticles from gas streams, and raised $2.3 million.

Hullbot makes autonomous underwater robots that scrub ship hulls, and raised $10.4 million.

Melt&Marble uses precision fermentation to produce designer fats for personal care and food, and raised $8.1 million.

Membrion develops ceramic desalination membranes and raised $20 million.

Milvus Advanced develops earth-abundant nanoalloy materials to replace rare metals in electrochemical and optoelectronic applications, and raised $6.9 million.

Neptune Robotics builds underwater robots to clean ship hulls, and raised $52 million.

PACT develops collagen-based biomaterials to replace plastic textiles, and raised $20 million.

Periodic Labs develops AI and robotics technologies to discover new chemicals and materials, and raised $300 million.

pH7 Technologies develops a metal-extraction technology, and raised $25.6 million.

Redwood Materials recycles and repurposes EV batteries for energy storage, and raised $350 million.

Sortera Technologies uses AI and advanced sensors to sort high-value aluminum alloys from mixed scrap and raised $45 million.

SuperCircle offers a textile recycling platform that helps retailers manage and reuse discarded apparel, and raised $24+ million.

Transition Metal Solutions uses prebiotic-style chemical additives to boost microbial copper recovery, and raised $6 million.

Terra Robotics makes laser-weeding robots for farms, and raised $2.1 million.

Wild Bioscience uses AI and genetics to develop resilient crop varieties and raised $60 million.

Vital Lyfe develops portable systems that deliver drinkable water and raised $24 million.

AI Tools for Drug Discovery

Companies developing artificial intelligence tools for drug discovery have received significant funding recently. We counted at least at least 14 new companies (AI Proteins, Cassidy Bio, Chai Discovery, Chemify, Converge Bio, Curve Biosciences, Excelsior Sciences, Expedition Medicines, Proxima, Lila Sciences, Profluent, Relation Therapeutics, TandemAI, Topos Bio) with over $775 million invested. These investments may help build the underlying datasets and tools necessary to design new chemicals and materials using AI. We hope that some of these capabilities will be applied to designing new molecules that are less toxic.