Knowns and (mostly) unknowns of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) transfers within agricultural soil-plant systems: Identifying fundamental research needs

Authors: Ashworth, Daniel

Submitted to: Journal of Environmental Science and Technology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/11/2026
Publication Date: 2/21/2026
Citation: Ashworth, D.J. 2026. Knowns and (mostly) unknowns of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) transfers within agricultural soil-plant systems: Identifying fundamental research needs. Journal of Environmental Science and Technology. 60(9):6845-6847. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6c01658.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6c01658

Interpretive Summary: Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) is a type of "forever chemical" or per/poly fluoroalkyl substance (PFAS). It is potentially highly mobile in the environment owing to poor retention by soils, and recent estimates of TFA accumulation in various environmental media (e.g., soil, water, plants) indicate that it may pose an appreciable risk to humans. A likely important route by which TFA may reach humans is the soil-plant pathway, transfers through which are subject to many unknowns owing to a lack of experimental data, especially for agricultural systems. This article suggests that experimental work is critically required to quantify the extent to which TFA may move from soils into agricultural crops intended for human consumption. Such understansding would help us design ways to prevent TFA from entering our food supply.

Technical Abstract: As one of several thousand per/poly fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), interest in the ultrashort-chain trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) has seen a resurgence over the last couple of years. Although research in the 1990s, particularly at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF) in New Hampshire, USA, cast TFA as potentially highly mobile in the environment owing to poor retention by soils, the risk it posed to human health was considered low. However, recent estimates of TFA accumulation in diverse environmental media to levels much greater than those seen for other PFAS have led to a realization that TFA may in fact pose an appreciable risk to humans. A likely important route by which TFA may reach humans is the soil-plant pathway, transfers through which are subject to many unknowns owing to a lack of empirical data, especially for agricultural systems. This article suggests that batch-, greenhouse-, and field-scale studies are now critically required to accurately quantify the extent to which TFA partitions into the solution of various soil types, and from there into a variety of agricultural crops. This fundamental understanding will be essential for driving TFA fate and transport models and risk models, as well as for designing effective mitigation strategies to reduce the risk of TFA across the soil-crop-human continuum.