France’s lower house of parliament, the Assemblée Nationale, has unanimously voted to extend the country’s ban on bisphenol A (BPA) to all food contact packaging from 2014, with the ban to affect baby food packaging from 2013. The legislation must still be passed by the French Senate. A ban on the polycarbonate and epoxy resin feedstock in baby bottles took effect on 1 June 2011 – see Plasteurope.com of 18.05.2010. A progress report on the safety of possible alternatives to BPA in food packaging is to be presented to parliament by 31 October 2012.

French health and environmental groups, in particular the organisation Réseau Environnement Santé (RES), which had been pressing for the ban, welcomed the parliamentary decision. As could be expected, however, industrial organisations – most notably PlasticsEurope (Brussels / Belgium; www.plasticseurope.org) and the association of French tin can producers SNFBM (www.snfbm.fr) – voiced objections.

PlasticsEurope noted that the legislators relied heavily on an opinion by the French food safety agency ANSES (www.anses.fr), but stressed that this agency’s assessment was in contrast to that of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA; www.efsa.europa.eu) and other regulatory authorities. As this creates a potential conflict in EU food contact regulations, the producers’ group said it welcomed the European Commission’s decision to ask EFSA to provide an assessment of the ANSES report. The can manufacturers said it was “simply unrealistic” to impose a ban by 2014, as to assure safety, years of tests would be required.