The European Commission has said it will ask the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) to conduct another risk assessment of phthalates in plastic food contact materials (FCMs).
The move follows publication, earlier this month, of an update to Efsa’s 2005 risk assessment of five phthalates authorised for use in FCMs.
In the update, the Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes and Processing Aids (CEP panel) calculated a group tolerable daily intake (TDI) for the four substances:
- di-butylphthalate (DBP);
- butylbenzylphthalate (BBP);
- bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP); and
- di-isononylphthalate (DINP).
They also calculated a conventional, individual TDI for di-isodecylphthalate (DIDP).
The Commission panel representative announced the new risk assessment, at a CEP panel meeting on 10 December.
The 2005 assessment and update focused on reproductive toxicity as a hazard endpoint. An Efsa spokesperson told Chemical Watch this was because of limited time for review of new data and for its completion.
“The CEP panel is fully aware of the intrinsic limitations of this approach and considers that all the potential toxicological endpoints should be examined with the same degree of rigour,” the spokesperson said.
Efsa has not yet received the mandate from the Commission.
In response, trade association European Plasticisers said it did not agree with the CEP panel’s grouping of DINP with DEHP, DBP and BBP.
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh, led by Sander van den Driesche, recently completed an industry-funded study confirming that DINP does not cause reproductive effects, the association said. This makes the substance significantly different from the other three in the CEP panel’s group.
The association expects the study to be published in a peer-reviewed journal “in the coming weeks”.
Jane Muncke, managing director and chief scientific officer at the Food Packaging Forum, said reproductive toxicity is probably not the most sensitive endpoint for this chemical class. It will be important for the new assessment to consider, in particular, neurological and metabolic toxicology, she added.
Dr Muncke also said that there is a lack of information about where and how these substances are used in FCMs.