Group cheers canning of Maine BPA bill

The bill, which the state leader smacked down on Monday, would have forced companies with sales of $1 billion USD or more to report to the state any BPA use, including food packaging

Positive move​

NAMPA, an organization aimed to promote metal packaging, understandably applauded the decision, which likely would have impacted food firms and their packaging partners financially.

Dr. John Rost, NAMPA chair, told FoodProductionDaily.com that Gov. LaPage’s veto is in line with the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) assessment that BPA offers no health threat to consumers.

“It is not surprising that the governor chose to allow the scientists who are charged with evaluating the safety of food and food contact materials to make the decision on safety of one of the most well-studied materials on the planet​,”  he said.

Safe packaging​

Rost added that metal packaging is popular with food firms and consumers because of its safety.

“According to the FDA’s own records, there has not been a foodborne illness case from the failure of metal packaging in over 38 years​,” he said. "This translates into billions of cans, of which BPA-based coatings has been a big part of that safety record​."

According to Rost, struggles with BPA legislation in the US and around the world continue because negative-skewed news has outpaced the good.

“The message of safety has not been communicated to the general public as compared the scare stories that have been covered widely​,” he said.