Scientists have made progress in linking chemicals to six major groups of common diseases, such as cancer, reproductive disorders, and metabolic disease. Exposure to harmful chemicals in everyday products can contribute to noncommunicable diseases, which are illnesses that do not spread from person to person. These conditions, including heart disease and diabetes, are a major public health concern. Many chemicals found in consumer products—like food packaging—lack enough safety data, making it difficult to determine if they pose a risk to health. Current methods for testing chemicals are limited in their ability to assess all possible health impacts. Many tests focus only on whether a substance can damage DNA (genotoxicity) and examine one chemical at a time. However, people are often exposed to complex mixtures of chemicals from multiple sources simultaneously. To address this challenge, scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the Food Packaging Forum have developed a new method using in vitro bioassays—laboratory tests that mimic human biology without using animals. This work is part of the CoModHaz project, led by Professor Bernd Escher of UFZ, which aims to create fast, animal-free ways to screen chemicals and their mixtures for potential harm. In their study, published in the journal Environment International, the researchers mapped 266 adverse outcome pathways (AOPs)—biological processes that lead to disease—to develop a practical, high-throughput method for screening chemicals. By analyzing these pathways as interconnected networks, they identified key biological events that could be central to causing various diseases. Based on this analysis, they proposed a set of 15 bioassays that could be used to quickly check whether products on the market are toxic and may contribute to these diseases. One potential application is testing food packaging for harmful substances that are often unintentionally added and not tested for safety. The next step is to validate these new bioassays to see how well they detect known hazardous chemicals. A study using this approach to test chemicals in food packaging is already underway. The proposed tests are a starting point that can be refined as new knowledge and technologies emerge. Dr. Sarah Stevens, lead author of the study from UFZ, said the new method could significantly improve public health by enabling broader toxicological screening of chemicals. Dr. Jane Muncke from the Food Packaging Forum added that this research marks an important step toward more effective chemical testing, which could help prevent diseases caused by exposure to harmful substances in everyday products.