California Food Packaging Bill Would Ban Bisphenols and Ortho-Phthalates
On February 20, 2025, California introduced the Safer Food Packing Act of 2025 (AB 1148) in its continued effort to prohibit certain chemicals in food packaging. As introduced, the bill proposed to bar the distribution, sale, or offer for sale of any food packaging containing antimony trioxide or specified ortho-phthalates or bisphenols, regardless of whether the substance was intentionally added or not. Assemblymember Dr. LaShae Sharp-Collins, who authored the bill, states that the bill “will allow California to act to reduce exposures through food to the same harmful chemicals that our state has already banned in other product categories: Phthalates, Bisphenols and Antimony Trioxide.” AB 1148 follows other California bills targeting certain chemicals in food packaging, such as the California Safer Food Packaging & Cookware Act (AB 1200), which banned per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from paper-based food packaging and was signed into law on October 5, 2021.
Following an amendment to AB 1148 made on April 23 of this year, antimony trioxide has now been removed from the scope of the bill, and the prohibition against specified bisphenols and ortho-phthalates has been limited to those that are intentionally added to food packaging. The removal of antimony trioxide from the bill comes after seven industry organizations argued against the prohibition during a hearing before the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials in early April. The organizations argued, in part, that antimony trioxide is widely used as a catalyst in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin, and FDA has approved PET for use in food contact applications (21 C.F.R § 177.1630), and that international and domestic organizations have found “no need for risk reduction measures” for antimony trioxide (EU Risk Assessment), and that “significant human health risks are not anticipated” (EPA). The industry coalition further highlighted that California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) considered antimony trioxide under its Proposition 65 law in 2023 and limited the scope of the listing to inhalation routes of exposure only.
Dr. Sharp-Collins promised to address the concerns from stakeholders and committed to removing antimony trioxide from the bill’s list of affected substances. Accordingly, the bill now proposes to only prohibit the manufacture, distribution, sale, or offer for sale in California of any “food packaging that contains intentionally added bisphenols or ortho-phthalates” at or above a regulatory limit to be determined by California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC).
California defines bisphenols as chemicals with two phenol rings connected by a single linker atom, but does not include tetramethyl bisphenol F (TMBPF, CAS No. 5384-21-4) (CA Health & Safety Code § 108942). Ortho-phthalates refer to a class of twelve (12) distinct chemicals that are esters of ortho-phthalic acid, including benzyl-butyl phthalate (BBP) 85-68-7, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) 84-74-2, di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), and 9 others (CA Health & Safety Code § 109051). The bill defines “intentionally added bisphenols or ortho-phthalates” as “any bisphenol or ortho-phthalate that a manufacturer has added to a product and that has a functional or technical effect in the product, including if the bisphenol or ortho-phthalate is a component of an intentionally added chemical or is the intentional breakdown product of an added chemical that also have functional effect in the product.”
Additionally, the bill allows DTSC “by regulation” to “establish standards for use of bisphenols or ortho-phthalates in food packaging that are more protective of public health, sensitive populations, or the environment.” AB 1148 is actually the latest in a series of other bills from recent years, including AB 2515 and SB 1266, that seek to provide DTSC with the authority to regulate the concentrations of chemicals in consumer products. Both AB 2515 and SB 1266 adopted a regulatory framework giving DTSC the task of determining safe chemical exposure levels and prohibiting products with chemical concentrations above these set limits. AB 1148 adopts a similar approach and provides DTSC with “the flexibility to update standards as scientific consensus evolves without forcing the Legislature to update the codes every time new scientific data updates society’s understanding of the risk of various chemicals.”
The bill recently passed the Appropriations Committee on May 23, and is now headed to the Assembly floor for a vote before June 6, 2025. The bill will then need to pass the California Senate before consideration for signing into law by Governor Gavin Newsom. Although the bill was amended to remove antimony trioxide from its scope, it bears watching to see if other jurisdictions will introduce measures that similarly focus on the presence of these substances in packaging, regardless of their intentional use.