We don’t usually think of lunch bags as something that needs a warning label — but sometimes, they do.
If you’ve ever noticed a ⚠️ Prop 65 tag hanging from a new bag, it’s not there by accident. It’s a signal that certain materials or chemical treatments are common enough in everyday products that California now requires consumers to be warned about them. Understanding what those warnings mean — and what choices we actually have — is an important first step toward safer, more intentional products.
Since conventional lunch bags often contain a host of synthetic chemicals, you might find something like this hanging from your shiny new bag:
⚠︎ WARNING: Cancer and Reproductive Harm
There are currently over 900 chemicals on the Prop 65 list, with new chemicals being added all the time. Products that contain any of these chemicals in amounts that exceed safety standards are required to display a warning label.
Prop 65 goes way beyond federal standards both in terms of scope (it includes many chemicals not regulated at the federal level), as well as by setting lower safe exposure levels. The law also mandates warning labels but, unfortunately, only requires a general warning - not specifics about the chemicals at issue.
For a lunch bag or box, the warning most likely relates to any number of the following, which are frequently used in the materials or manufacturing of these products:
- Phthalates: Often used to make plastics more flexible.
- Lead and other heavy metals: Sometimes found in dyes, paints, or other materials.
- Bisphenol A (BPA): Used in certain plastics and resins.
- PFAS Chemicals: Used to make materials water-resistant and stain-resistant.
- Formaldehyde: Used as a binding agent in some glues, resins, and coatings.
All of these chemicals have been linked to a range of potential health concerns, including hormone disruption, immune system impacts, reproductive harm, and other long-term effects.
The presence of a Prop 65 warning doesn't necessarily mean that a product is unsafe, but it does mean that it contains a chemical listed by the state of California as potentially harmful at certain exposure levels. It's really up to the consumer to decide what to do with that.
In researching this piece, we came across the idea that Prop 65 warnings are so common in California that they’ve almost become background noise. When warnings appear everywhere, it can be difficult for consumers to distinguish between genuinely concerning exposures and those that may pose lower risk.
But perhaps that’s not the most important question. Instead of asking whether a warning matters, we might ask why potentially harmful chemicals are so widespread in everyday products in the first place — and why safer alternatives aren’t the default. When we accept this as normal, we allow the status quo to continue.
We think it's important to avoid these chemicals wherever possible, and particularly in your choice of a lunch bag - which you or your kids will use daily, and comes into contact with food. Look for lunch bags that are specifically labeled as BPA, phthalate, heavy metal and PFAS-free, or otherwise certified as free of hazardous chemicals.
All Fluf products are independently tested to the highest Prop 65 + EU standards, and are free of all chemicals known to be harmful (including PVC, BPA, phthalates, heavy metals, all PFAS chemicals, and more).
No Prop 65 warning here!
