The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, or Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung (BfR), announced its endorsement of the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) January 2015 scientific opinion that exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA) is not a public health risk. In BfR communication No.
The President's Fiscal Year 2016 Budget proposes to create a single new food safety agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The new agency would take over the food safety functions of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, of the $1.6 billion allocated for food safety in the budget, none is specifically earmarked for a new food safety agency.
Exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA) from the diet and other sources is considerably under the safe level and therefore is not a public health risk, according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). EFSA's scientific opinion, published January 21, 2015, is based on a comprehensive re-evaluation of BPA conducted by EFSA's Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes, Flavourings and Processing Aids (CEF Panel).
The French ban on Bisphenol A (BPA) in food-contact products intended for use by children up to 3 years of age will expand to include all packaging, containers, and utensils intended for direct contact with food on January 1, 2015. The ban, French law no 2012-1442, was adopted on December 26, 2012.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) again has affirmed its position that Bisphenol A (BPA) "is safe at the current levels occurring in foods." In a December 5, 2014 update to its webpage memoranda on BPA, FDA further noted that, based on its ongoing safety review of the scientific evidence, "the available information continues to support the safety of BPA for the currently approved uses in food containers and packaging."
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is accepting comments on its Consultation Paper for Proposal P1034 to determine whether legally binding measures are needed to regulate the direct and indirect migration of chemicals from packaging into food beyond the general safety standard enumerated in the Australian New Zealand Food Standards Code.
The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and eight other organizations petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requesting various actions be taken concerning the use of perchlorate and long-chain perfluorocarboxylates in food packaging.
The perchlorate petition, dated October 15, 2014, specifically requests that FDA:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has until August 31, 2016, to submit a final rule on generally recognized as safe (GRAS) substances under a Consent Decree issued by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. However, the August 2016 deadline may be extended with agreement of all parties.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued supplements to its 2013 proposed rules to implement the "Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls" (HARPC) and the "Foreign Supplier Verification Program" (FSVP) provisions of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The proposed supplements do not make significant changes to the originally proposed rules and have little direct impact on food-contact substances, though several provisions are mentioned.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released the findings from its first review of a three-part strategic assessment of its food and feed programs. The first review addressed how the agency evaluates the safety of chemicals in foods.