It pays to find alternatives to bisphenol A: Study

By Joanne Hunter

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Bisphenol a

International food and beverage brand-owners could jeopardise their share value and reputation by dragging their feet when it comes to implementing alternatives to bisphenol A (BPA), according to a recent US survey.

The Seeking Safer Packaging​ survey report by Green Century Capital Management, which advises on environmentally responsible investments, recommends “swift”​ action to substitute BPA-free alternatives for all food- and water-contact polycarbonate plastics. It also recommends more research into the use of BPA-free alternatives for can linings.

The US is considering a federal ban on the use of BPA in baby bottles. There are also proposals to widen the ban to food and beverage containers on similar consumer safety grounds.

Alternatives to BPA

Survey respondents were ranked by their efforts to find and implement alternatives to BPA and their plans to phase out BPA in products for which alternatives exist. All companies that took part, including Campbell, Coca-Cola, General Mills, McCormick & Company, Kellogg, Kraft and PepsiCo, are “taking insufficient steps to move towards alternatives​”, says the report. Top scorers Hain Celestial, Heinz, and Nestlé were looking into alternatives and presented “limited​” plans to phase out the chemical in “some​” applications.

Heinz was “the only company using an alternative to BPA in some of its can linings​”, stated the report.

At the bottom of the score table, Del Monte, Hershey, and J.M. Smucker “are not taking action beyond monitoring the industry to identify or implement alternatives to BPA as a packaging material​”. No single company that responded stood out as a leader in addressing the risks of BPA.

The report urges investment to find alternatives particularly for high-acid foods such as tomatoes; and to give purchasing preference to suppliers of non-BPA products. And it reveals a lack of industry readiness for changing packaging policy in the light of the US’s precautionary regulatory climate, claim the authors. The precautionary principle is used to guide decisions where inconclusive evidence of harm exists.

Expert on risk and policy Professor Brian Wynne, of the Economic and Social Research Council Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics at Lancaster University, UK told Food Production Daily that BPA seems to be “very similar​” to many of the cases analysed in the European Environment Agency’s examination of cases between1896 and 1999.

Precautionary principle

The 2002 report, Late Lessons from Early Warnings: The precautionary principle in the 20th Century,​ showed how evidence of potential harm was neglected when it could have been acted upon, only for harms to be found later.

Prof Wynne, one of the editors of the EEA report, said: “Regulatory authorities and the industries they regulate are often found to be making non-precautionary assumptions about the risks and exposures, which are untested and unproven, and need to be subjected to greater accountability to wider specialist and stakeholder groups​.”

Related topics Processing & Packaging

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