French BPA ban will distort EU food packaging market, Plastics Europe

By Mark Astley

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags European union

French BPA ban will distort EU food packaging market, Plastics Europe
The new French ban on bisphenol A (BPA) could potentially distort the European internal market for food packaging, according to plastics industry trade association Plastics Europe.

Yesterday’s decision by the French National Assembly to approve the proposed bill prohibiting the use of BPA has been met with disappointment by Plastics Europe’s PC/BPA division, which believes it has the potential to cause “inconsistency”​ in consumer safety decisions.

The French National Assembly decided, with 348 votes for and 2 against, to ban BPA in all food contact packaging from 2014.

A BPA ban on packaging aimed at children under the age of three was also approved, as well as the introduction of warning labels on any packaging containing BPA for pregnant women or children under the age of three.

Safety inconsistency harmful

But Plastics Europe spokeswoman Jasmin Bird told FoodProductionDaily.com: “Having inconsistency among consumer safety-decisions in Europe is not helpful for both European industry and European consumers alike.”

“If safety decisions or potentially new safety laws are no longer based upon the weight of sound scientific evidence, industry and consumers alike can longer rely on the existing legal and political framework.”

Plastics Europe had previously criticised a report by the French Food Safety Agency (ANSES), on which the ban proposal was based.

ANSES under attack

The trade body claimed that ANSES had misinterpreted existing information on BPA, despite a previous European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) report concluding that the substance was safe for food contact applications.

French health minister Xavier Bertrand declared his support for a wholesale ban on BPA last week, following the release of the ANSES report.

Bertrand became the second cabinet minister to back the bill, after ecology minister Nancy Kosciusko-Morizet endorsed the proposal a few weeks ago.

EFSA declined to comment on the ban but told FoodProductionDaily.com: “Following the publication of the two reports on BPA by ANSES on the 27th September 2011, the European Commission has asked EFSA for scientific advice on whether the reports contain elements that would lead EFSA to reconsider the opinion on BPA published in September 2010.”

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