On June 17, 2016 the U.S. non-profit organization Environmental Working Group (EWG) launched a new database containing more than 16,000 processed food and drink products packaged in materials that may contain the endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) bisphenol A (BPA, CAS 80-05-7). EWG built their database on the product lists made public by the Grocery Manufacturers Association and other industry groups on a joint website. The industry website lists brands and products that “may result in an exposure to BPA” and was established in response to BPA being listed under Proposition 65 in the state of California and the subsequent requirement for “point-of-sale” BPA warning labels (FPF reported).
“Food packaging is the largest source of exposure to BPA, which readily migrates from packaging into edibles,” EWG writes. The industry’s lists include more than 8,000 soup, vegetable, sauce and fruit products, nearly 1,600 tomato products, more than 1,400 beverages, and over 500 meat and seafood products, EWG reports. BPA-containing packaging ranges from linings of food cans, lids of glass jars, aerosol cans, oil bottles and tins, to aluminum beverage cans, coffee cans and beer kegs, the industry website and EWG’s database show. EWG urges the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to “reassess the safety of this chemical, which the website reveals is more widely used in food packaging than previously known.”
Read more
Samara Geller & Bill Walker (June 17, 2016). “Industry database reveals 16,000 foods with toxic chemical in packaging.” EWG
EWG (June 19, 2016). “These 16,000 foods may contain the hormone-disrupting chemical BPA.” EcoWatch
Tara Duggan (June 20, 2016). “Report finds widespread BPA in food products.” SF Gate
Erica Langston (June 20, 2016). “10 surprising snacks that may have BPA.” Mother Jones
