FDA and other regulators globally have performed safety assessments for components of food packaging materials for decades. Although such safety assessments are made at one point in time, both the knowledgebase relevant to the safety of a given chem. and the knowledgebase regarding the science of chem. safety more generally has continued to evolve. Approaches to intake assessment for packaging materials as well as safety testing methods and methods of data anal. have all evolved based on the growing knowledgebase of the science in all of these areas. The author will discuss how intake assessments have evolved, as well as how the types and amounts of testing data have evolved and how each may evolve in the future. Finally, an anal. of chem. safety data generally over the past 5 decades will be presented to support a conclusion that both food packaging and the chems. used to produce food packaging have become safer over the lifetime of the food additive provisions of the Federal, Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.