In August 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a ruling saying BPA was safe for all uses. The ruling sparked a public firestorm, as critics called the research flawed.

On January 9th, 2010 the FDA officials said there is “some concern” about the health risks to children and babies from the plastics additive known as BPA. They won’t, however,  restrict use of the substance pending further study.

Suspected of being hazardous to humans since the 1930s, BPAs have undergone much scientific scrutiny recently. Concerns about the use of  BPA in consumer products have been growing amongst the public and some retailers have removed products made of it from their shelves.

Some states have banned BPA in the manufacture of baby products. (BPA had previously been found in baby bottles and toys.)  Manufacturers seem to be getting the message. Most major baby bottle manufacturers, including Avent, Gerber and Playtex stopped using the substance in bottles they sell in the U.S. in early 2009.

Cheaper bottles, canning jar lids and many canned foods still contain what environmental health advocates contend is a significant quantity of BPA.

Where BPA is used and how it gets in you

Environmental health researchers believe, to the contrary, that BPAs are a big problem. They assert that BPA is an endocrine disruptor that the body can mistake for its own hormones, resulting in a host of nasty side effects. The danger appears particularly great for babies, fetuses, and young children, an age group that has the highest sensitivity to endocrine disruptors and other hormone-like chemicals.

FDA Backtracks on Potential Danger of BPA (ABC News)

A pretty nice review of the history of the BPA controversy

The 2008 report by the U.S. National Toxicology program.

Have you ever wondered how much rodent shit the FDA will allow in the wheat that ends up in your bread or how much mold is okay in frozen strawberries?  All of the numbers are available in the FDA Defect Levels Handbook, if you are brave enough to look.

Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 110.110 allows the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to establish maximum levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods for human use that present no health hazard. These “Food Defect Action Levels” listed in this booklet are set on this premise–that they pose no inherent hazard to health.

You can look forward to reading about contamination by:

Copepods

Extraneous Materials -Including objectionable matter contributed by insects, rodents, and birds; decomposed material; and miscellaneous matter such as sand, soil, glass, rust, or other foreign substances.

Foreign Matter -Including objectionable matter such as sticks, stones, burlap bagging, cigarette butts, etc. Also includes the valueless parts of the raw plant material, such as stems.

Infestation - The presence of any live or dead life cycle stages of insects in a host product, (e.g., weevils in pecans, fly eggs and maggots in tomato products); or evidence of their presence (i.e., excreta, cast skins, chewed product residues, urine, etc.); or the establishment of an active breeding population, (e.g., rodents in a grain silo).

Mildew, Mold, Rancidity, Rot

Whole or Equivalent Insects – A whole insect, separate head, or body portions with head attached.

Enjoy the Handbook. But wait until you have finished your lunch!

FDA Defect Levels Handbook