The EU Banned BPA From All Food Packaging. The FDA Missed Its Deadline by 1,000 Days.

On January 20, 2025, the European Union banned bisphenol A from every category of food contact material. Metal can linings, plastic bottles, kitchenware, water coolers, adhesives, inks, coatings. All prohibited under Commission Regulation (EU) 2024/3190, published in the Official Journal of the European Union on December 31, 2024. The regulation also bans five additional bisphenols, including BPS, the chemical most commonly used to replace BPA in products marketed as "BPA-free."

In the United States, the FDA has taken no equivalent action. Not a partial restriction. Not a revised safety threshold. Nothing.

The Environmental Defense Fund filed a formal petition with the FDA in April 2022, requesting that the agency revoke BPA approvals and set strict limits on its use in food contact plastics. Federal law requires the FDA to respond to such petitions within 180 days. As of January 2026, over 1,320 days had passed with no substantive response, according to a January 2026 blog post by EDF scientists Maricel Maffini, PhD and Maria Doa, PhD.

Same chemical. Two continents. Radically different outcomes.

What BPA Is and Why It Matters

BPA is an industrial chemical used since the 1960s to make polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resin linings. It shows up in the coatings inside metal food and drink cans, in hard plastic food containers, in water bottle linings, and in a range of other materials that touch what you eat and drink. The chemical migrates from packaging into food, especially when containers are heated or when acidic foods sit in lined cans.

The reason it matters: BPA is an endocrine disruptor. It mimics estrogen in the body and interferes with hormonal signaling at very low doses. According to CDC data cited by the Environmental Defense Fund, approximately 95% of Americans carry detectable levels of BPA. Children consistently show the highest concentrations. The chemical has been detected in blood, urine, sweat, amniotic fluid, and breast milk.

This is not a trace contaminant found in a few unlucky individuals. It is a chemical present in nearly every American's body, including infants before they are born.

Why Europe Acted: A 20,000-Fold Correction

The EU ban stems from a reassessment the European Food Safety Authority completed in 2023. EFSA concluded that the tolerable daily intake of BPA should be 20,000 times lower than the previous threshold it had set in 2015, according to reporting by the Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Health News.

That number bears repeating. Not 20% lower. Not twice as strict. Twenty thousand times more restrictive.

EFSA identified potentially harmful effects on the immune system at doses far below what previous evaluations had considered concerning. The reassessment also flagged impacts on the endocrine and reproductive systems. Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi stated the ban was based on "solid scientific advice" and would "protect our consumers against harmful chemicals where they can come into contact with their food and drink," according to a December 2024 announcement by the European Commission.

The regulation covers every major category of food contact material. According to guidance published by Food Safety Magazine in January 2026, the phase-out follows a staggered timeline: single-use food contact materials must comply by July 2026, reusable materials by July 2027, produce packaging by January 2028, and professional-grade reusable equipment by January 2029. Compliant products must contain BPA residues below 1 microgram per kilogram.

The European Commission also published a 40-question Q&A guidance document for industry, making clear that this is not a suggestion. It is a binding regulation with specific deadlines.

The FDA's 1,000-Day Silence

The Environmental Defense Fund submitted its petition to the FDA in April 2022. The petition made specific requests: revoke BPA approvals in adhesives and coatings, and impose strict limits on BPA in food contact plastics. The legal clock started ticking on a 180-day response deadline.

That deadline passed in late 2022. Then all of 2023 passed. Then 2024.

"While Europe moves forward, the FDA has still not taken substantive action. That inaction is a decision," the Environmental Defense Fund wrote in its January 2026 assessment of the situation.

The gap between U.S. and European regulators is not simply about speed. It reflects a structural difference. As Environmental Health News reported in April 2024, a coalition of prominent endocrine disruption researchers published commentary in Environmental Health Perspectives describing the FDA's BPA safety standards as "outdated, misguided and flawed." The scientists pointed to a key institutional difference: EFSA operates as an independent scientific body that conducts risk assessment separately from risk management decisions. The FDA handles both functions, creating what researchers described as a potential conflict of interest.

Europe's independent scientists reviewed the data and concluded the old BPA threshold was dangerously wrong by a factor of 20,000. They recommended a ban. The European Commission adopted that recommendation within two years. The FDA, which runs its own safety evaluations internally, has not even responded to a petition asking it to reconsider.

The "BPA-Free" Shell Game

For more than a decade, American consumers have reached for products labeled "BPA-free" assuming they were choosing something safer. That assumption has a serious flaw.

Most manufacturers that removed BPA replaced it with structurally similar chemicals: bisphenol S (BPS), bisphenol F (BPF), or other analogs. These replacement chemicals act on the same hormonal pathways and carry similar risks to the immune and reproductive systems.

The EU regulation addresses this directly. It bans not only BPA but also BPS, BPAF, TBBPA, phenolphthalein, and 4,4'-isobutylethylidenediphenol, six bisphenols in total, according to Food Safety Magazine. The regulation targets chemicals classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic to reproduction, and those identified as category 1 endocrine disruptors. The intent is to close the door on what has become the industry's standard workaround: swapping one harmful bisphenol for another.

In the United States, there is no equivalent restriction on any of these replacement chemicals. A product can carry a "BPA-free" label while containing BPS at levels that would violate European law. The label tells you one chemical is absent. It says nothing about what took its place.

By the Numbers

Here is what the U.S.-EU divide looks like in hard data:

• EFSA lowered its tolerable daily BPA intake by a factor of 20,000, based on immune system effects at extremely low doses (Environmental Defense Fund; Environmental Health News).
• About 95% of Americans carry detectable BPA. Children have the highest concentrations (CDC data cited by EDF).
• The FDA has gone 1,320+ days without responding to a formal petition, more than seven times the 180-day legal deadline (EDF).
• BPA has been found in blood, urine, sweat, amniotic fluid, and breast milk.
• Six bisphenols are now banned in EU food packaging, with BPA residue limits set at 1 microgram per kilogram (Food Safety Magazine). The U.S. restricts none of them.

This is not a chemical you might encounter. It is a chemical already inside you.

What You Can Do

The FDA has shown no sign that action is coming. Here is what you can do without waiting for regulators.

Reduce canned food consumption. Most metal can linings in the U.S. still use BPA-based epoxy coatings. Choose fresh, frozen, or foods packaged in glass jars and cartons when possible.

Stop heating food in plastic containers. BPA and its replacement chemicals leach faster at higher temperatures. Transfer food to glass or ceramic before microwaving.

Do not rely on "BPA-free" labels. That label means one specific chemical is absent. It does not tell you whether BPS, BPF, or other bisphenol analogs replaced it. The EU banned six bisphenols for a reason: they all pose risks.

Check independent testing data. Labels and marketing claims have limits. Apps like VeriFoods let you scan product barcodes and check whether items have been independently tested for contaminants, including bisphenols. When regulators are not doing their jobs, independent testing data becomes the only reliable source of information.

Push for regulatory action. The Environmental Defense Fund's petition has gone unanswered for over 1,320 days. Consumer pressure has been behind every significant food safety reform in U.S. history. Contact your representatives and demand the FDA respond.

The European Union examined the science on BPA and decided its citizens deserved protection. American consumers are still exposed to a chemical that Europe has determined is dangerous at doses 20,000 times lower than the old safety standard. That gap is not going to close on its own.

Sources

• European Commission Food Safety, "Commission adopts ban of Bisphenol A in food contact materials," December 19, 2024. https://food.ec.europa.eu/food-safety-news-0/commission-adopts-ban-bisphenol-food-contact-materials-2024-12-19_en
• Environmental Defense Fund, "The European Union marks one year of its BPA ban... where is the FDA?" January 12, 2026. https://blogs.edf.org/health/2026/01/12/the-european-union-marks-one-year-of-its-bpa-banwhere-is-the-fda/
• Food Safety Magazine, "EU Publishes Guidance for Industry on BPA Food Contact Materials Ban," January 29, 2026. https://www.food-safety.com/articles/11084-eu-publishes-guidance-for-industry-on-bpa-food-contact-materials-ban
• Environmental Health News, "FDA's current BPA safety standards are outdated, misguided and flawed, scientists say," April 12, 2024. https://www.ehn.org/fda-efsa-bpa
• European Commission Access2Markets, "EU prohibition on the use and trade of Bisphenol A from 20 January 2025," January 2025. https://trade.ec.europa.eu/access-to-markets/en/news/eu-prohibition-use-and-trade-bisphenol-20-january-2025