The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) lowered estimates for human exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) from those previously adopted in 2006, in a draft opinion issued July 25, 2013. The lower estimates resulted from new information submitted in response to an EFSA call for data. The estimates were derived by experts on EFSA's Scientific Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes, Flavourings and Processing Aids (CEF Panel), through exposure modelling and analysis of human biomonitoring data (from urine samples).
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) announced another delay in adoption of its scientific opinion on bisphenol A (BPA) after it determined that more time was needed to evaluate key health effects identified in animal studies, and their potential relationship to human health. The opinion was originally scheduled to be published in May 2013, but was later delayed until November 2013. EFSA has now decided that it will instead hold a two-stage public consultation period, thereby extending the final adoption of its scientific opinion to 2014.
A federal judge in California imposed concrete deadlines for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to publish and finalize all remaining overdue rules to implement provisions of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which was signed into law on January 4, 2011. The Order Granting Injunctive Relief was issued June 21, 2013.
A committee of the National Research Council (NRC) is conducting a scientific peer review of the styrene assessment in the National Toxicology Program (NTP) 12th Report on Carcinogens (RoC). The RoC listed styrene as a substance that is "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen." NTP reserves this category for substances for which there is either limited evidence of carcinogenic effects in humans, or substantial evidence supporting carcinogenicity in experimental animals.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released documents showing the White House Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) edits to the original draft of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) proposal on standards for preventive controls. FDA was required to establish standards for preventive controls under Section 103 of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). FDA's proposals were sent to OMB in December 2011, and published on January 16, 2013.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued its long-awaited proposed rule to implement Section 103, "Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls," of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) on January 4, 2013 (78 Fed. Reg. 3646-3824). As applied to food-contact material manufacturers, the proposed rule has little direct impact.