Food Contact Material - BPA issues

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Food Contact Material - BPA issues
E.C. is 27 countries and 1 market, whereas U.S.A. is 50 states and 1 country (1 market).
The French National Assembly has passed a bill that bans all food contact packaging containing Bisphenol A (BPA) from 2014. EFSA rejected the French bill.

The U.S. FDA agreed to rule on whether to ban BPA use in food and beverage packaging by March 31, 2012 in the District Court for the Southern district of New York (per Chicago Tribune December 7, 2011). Please take note that NRDC sued U.S. FDA in 2010 asking the court to require the agency to respond to 2008 NRDC filed a petition.

Questions:
- Do you think EFSA can ask the French National Assembly to nullify this bill?
- Do you think U.S. FDA can simply walk away ignoring this issue?
- What will happen if either one of them agrees to ban BPA use in food contact packaging




John's comments regarding vinyl, epoxy and acrylic technologies are right on target. It appears that in addition to being "green", any chemical products or chemical by-products identified, by any of the number of extraction requirements globally, will need to be considered. We may be simply moving from one "forest" of (extraction) peaks to a totally unknown forest of peaks. For each peak identified the standardized toxicity tests used globally for regulatory decision will need to be performed. Any carcinogenicity and genotoxicity or similar issue will need to be identified. This is in addition all of the flavor, pack test and other performance testing required to introduce a new coating to the market. The amount of time needed to bring a new coating to this market will increase substantially. Epoxy and vinyl technologies offer a lot of technical advantages and have been well studied. If the public fear of BPA containing materials does drive the industry to new technologies, based on the amount of environmental and performance testing required, what form will the future food or beverage container take?