California’s OEHHA Proposes Interim BPA Warning Regulation

We previously reported that California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) issued an emergency regulation to allow the temporary use of standard point-of-sale warnings for BPA exposures from canned and bottled foods and beverages. The emergency

regulation is scheduled to expire on October 17, 2016. Recognizing food companies will need additional time to phase out the use of BPA and sell through the BPA-containing foods and beverages with a shelf life of up to three years, OEHHA is initiating a rulemaking process to maintain the point-of-sale warnings until December 30, 2017. Notably, the proposed new regulation would require food companies to provide OEHHA with a list of all products in which BPA is intentionally used in the manufacturing. OEHHA then plans to publish the list in a searchable, electronic format on its website. When the regulation expires on December 30, 2017, the state and the private “bounty hunters” likely would use that list as their roadmap of each of the foods that contain BPA in their packaging. Food companies should reevaluate their BPA compliance strategy in light of the new regulation. Comments on the interim regulation are due on September 26, 2016.