Canada, US and France Advance BPA Limits: Food Packaging Exporters Urged to Prepare

Canada and the United States have already announced bans on bisphenol A (BPA) in food packaging and food-contact materials. French parliamentarians have now jointly submitted a bill calling for the same prohibition. As European and American countries continue to issue new rules for food packaging and food-contact materials, Chinese export enterprises and relevant departments should pay close attention and prepare their response as early as possible.

BPA is a key organic chemical raw material used mainly to produce polycarbonate, epoxy resin, polysulfone resin and other polymer materials. Studies have found that BPA may cause diseases affecting the human heart, liver and other organs. In particular, BPA released from infant feeding bottles and similar containers may lead to abnormal hormone secretion and impaired brain development in infants.

To help enterprises respond effectively to the new regulations, inspection and quarantine departments should take the following steps: first, continue to strengthen research on new testing methods for food packaging and food-contact materials, gather information on new foreign technical regulations and standards, track new changes in relevant foreign laws and regulations, and build an effective risk early-warning mechanism; second, increase outreach to export enterprises, guide them in tightening control over raw and auxiliary materials and production processes, reinforce source management, and steadily improve product quality and safety; third, further intensify inspection and supervision, strengthen safety and hygiene control over export enterprises' raw materials, auxiliary materials, semi-finished products, finished products and production processes, and, in line with importing countries' technical regulation requirements, enhance risk analysis of different types of exported food packaging and food-contact materials, highlighting the key varieties and items for sampling and testing, so as to provide technical support for exported food safety.

Export enterprises are also advised to: first, closely monitor new changes in food packaging technical regulations across countries and keep abreast of their implementation dates, specific content and scope; second, put quality first, strengthen the awareness of quality responsibility, know, understand and apply standards, and continuously improve quality management; third, strengthen source management, strictly prohibit the addition of BPA to raw and auxiliary materials, and ensure that food packaging and food-contact materials meet the importing country's standards.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn), original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-362213.html