Jul 30th, 2024
4 mins
The Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT), have recently published an updated position paper on bisphenol A (BPA) .
BPA is used and authorised in food contact materials (FCMs) such as reusable bottles, tableware, and storage containers, in thermal printing in certain paper products and for protective linings of food and beverage cans and vats. It is prohibited in coatings and varnishes applied to FCMs intended for infants and young children. Where it is permitted, operators must ensure that BPA observes the specific migration limit (SML) of 0.05 mg/kg (EFSA, 2021). The SML set in the European Union (EU) and United Kingdom (UK) was based on the EFSA 2015 evaluation of BPA.
A temporary TDI (tTDI) was established by EFSA in 2015 of 4 µg/kg body weight (bw) per day However, whilst at the time EFSA concluded there were no concerns from dietary exposure, they were more uncertain about the exposure estimate from non-dietary sources. Therefore, in 2016, EFSA received a mandate from the European Commission (EC) to re-evaluate the risk to public health related to the presence of BPA in foodstuffs. The COT discussed the draft EFSA opinion at their extraordinary meeting in February 2022 and provided comments to EFSA. The final EFSA opinion and diverging opinions by the European Medical Agency (EMA) and the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) were then discussed at the May 2023 meeting.
In this latest review the Committee considered the new evidence available on BPA, and while it is possible that the TDI would need to be revised to account for this new evidence, the weight of evidence did not support the conclusions drawn by EFSA, or a TDI as low as that derived by EFSA. The Committee had concerns about the intermediate endpoint selected in EFSA’s assessment as the basis of their TDI. It concluded that the endpoint selected and approach applied by BfR were more scientifically robust and appropriate than those used by EFSA. Therefore, the Committee agreed to adopt the TDI of 0.2 ug/kg bw per day derived by BfR. It will publish a supplementary statement in due course.
