The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently consented to undertake a safety review on the use of bisphenol A (BPA, CAS 80-05-7) in can coatings, plastic bottles, and other food contact materials. The FDA’s response comes after civil society organizations including Environmental Defense Fund, Consumer Reports, and Endocrine Society asked for just such a review in a January 2022 petition (FPF reported), and an April 2022 supplement.
The civil society organizations filed the original petition after the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) released a draft scientific opinion suggesting lowering the official tolerable daily intake (TDI) value of BPA from 4 micrograms per kilogram of bodyweight per day (µg/kg bw/day) to 0.00004 µg/kg/bw day, a 100,000-fold decrease (FPF reported). FDA didn’t accept the initial petition because it was based on a draft opinion and EFSA was still accepting comments. When the organizations refiled the petition in April they supplemented it with additional information that EFSA had received during the comment period as well as new research that had been published in the intervening months.
Now that FDA has agreed to undergo the review, the agency has until October 31, 2022 to deliver a decision.
Reference
Marissa Lyn Santos (May 2, 2022). “Re: Food Additive Petition (FAP) No. 2B4831.” US FDA (pdf)
Read more
Tom Neltner (June 2, 2022). “FDA agrees to reconsider safety of BPA in food packaging.” Environmental Defense Fund
E.A. Crunden and Ariel Wittenberg (June 2, 2022). “FDA agrees to reassess BPA risks.” E&E News
