2025 was the biggest year yet for microfibrillated cellulose regulatory advances

At the beginning of a new year, it’s natural to reflect on the previous year and set goals for the coming one. We at Vireo Advisors are so proud of the work that we have accomplished in 2025 in collaboration with our partners, funders and clients to drive the commercialization of microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) forward.

As a result of multi-year efforts, we achieved the largest food contact regulatory clearances of MFC to date in multiple markets worldwide in 2025.

·         In the United States, 5 successful Food Contact Notifications (FCNs) have opened the US market to the use of MFC in food contact paper, paperboard, plastics, and adhesives, as well as a coating on fruits and vegetables with non-edible peels. This broad clearance was achieved for 5 different MFC manufacturers located throughout Europe and North America.

·         In the European Union (EU), we successfully petitioned the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) to list MFC in BfR Recommendations XXXVI, XXXVI/1, XXXVI/2, XXXVI/3 and XIV. Aligning with European food contact material laws and considered the industry standard, the BfR listings open the EU market to the use MFC in paper, paperboard, and moulded fiber food contact applications as well as coatings on food contact materials.

Vireo, our partners, and collaborators also made huge strides to advance the use of MFC for applications in food. In October 2025, we partnered with Valmet, the University of Maine Process Development Center and Capatec to conduct the first food-grade production runs of MFC at their facility. This run was part of a much larger effort to designate MFC ‘Generally Recognized as Safe’ and further open the US market to applications in food.

These achievements reflect the efforts of Vireo Advisors, our collaborators and partners from the Alliance for Food Safety Acceptance of Fibrillated and Crystalline Celluloses (AFSAC) with support from P3Nano, a public private partnership between the US Endowment for Forestry and Communities and the USDA US Forest Service, and the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service Sustainable Packaging Innovation Lab (SPIL) at Clemson University, launched through the Assisting Specialty Crop Exports (ASCE) Initiative.

Together, we are leading the global effort to gain regulatory approval for emerging cellulosic materials in food and food contact applications. We are proud to support work that is driving the shift toward next-generation bio-based materials, delivering safer and more sustainable solutions to the challenges of the 21st century.

2026 is shaping up to be another big year for this community, and we can’t wait to see what we’ll accomplish together!