In the News
EFSA Delays BPA Opinion Until September; France Bans BPA in Baby Bottles
Jul 13, 2010
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes, Flavourings, and Processing Aids (CEF Panel) announced, following a Plenary meeting held July 6-8, that it would delay its opinion on Bisphenol A (BPA) until September. The announcement was made in a July 8, 2010 letter to the European Commission (EC). (To see a copy of the letter, click on the link at the end of this article.) The Panel did agree during the July meeting that the tolerable daily intake (TDI) for BPA (0.05 mg/kg bw day) should remain in place for now.
As reported on PackagingLaw.com in June, following EFSA's presentation of its draft opinion on BPA to representatives from the EC and EU Member States at a March 26, 2010 meeting, EFSA received an urgent request from the Commission to review the scientific arguments Denmark relied upon to support its ban on the use of BPA in food-contact materials for children up to 3 years. In particular, the Commission asked EFSA to review a study investigating the neurodevelopmental toxicity of BPA in rats ("the Stump study"), which was the scientific basis for the temporary ban in Denmark on BPA in food-contact materials used by infants and toddlers.
The CEF Panel concluded that the Stump study does not contain conclusive evidence that BPA affects the neurotoxic endpoints evaluated in the study. In addition to the Stump study, the CEF Panel collected and reviewed more than 800 publications addressing the toxicity of BPA. Given the voluminous dataset, the Panel did not have sufficient time to complete deliberations and finalize its opinion on BPA. During the meeting, the Panel reviewed the risk assessment on BPA carried out by the Danish DTU Food Institute and ruled out the possibility of BPA's having a low dose effect on learning ability, as expressed in the Danish assessment.
France Acts Alone
In related news, France adopted a law last month banning the manufacture, importation, and marketing of baby bottles containing BPA. The French Law, Act No. 2010-729, published on June 30, 2010, is a permanent ban on the use of BPA in baby bottles and is immediately enforceable. The French Government has announced that it will decide next year whether to extend the ban to prohibit the use of BPA in all commercial products.
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