Water bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET)

PET has become the material of choice for water bottles because it is light weight and shatter resistant. PET bottles are used for water and fruit juice to soft drinks.

Food and beverage packaging materials, including plastic resin used in the manufacture of water bottles, are reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before allowing them on the market. The safety of these products is demonstrated through extensive testing and protected by FDA regulations.

Is the plastic in my water bottle safe?

The FDA carefully reviews new substances intended for food contact before allowing them on the market. This includes plastics intended for food or beverage packaging. Both plastics and plastic additives are subject to FDA review and regulations.

New packaging materials are permitted for food use only after the FDA reviews the submitted test data and is satisfied that they are safe for their intended use. As part of its review, FDA assesses the migration potential of plastics and the substances with which they are made. Scientific tests are conducted to establish that there is a minimal amount of transfer between a plastic package and the food it contains and that any transfer does not pose a risk to human health.

Do plastic bottles leach harmful substances into water?

Most water bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The FDA has determined that PET meets standards for food-contact materials established by

federal regulations and therefore permits the use of PET in food and beverage packaging for both single use and repeated use. FDA has evaluated test data that simulate long-term storage and that support repeated use.

The toxicological properties of PET and any compounds that might migrate under test conditions have also been well studied. The results of these tests demonstrate that PET is safe for its intended uses. (For details, see The Safety of Polyethylene Terephthalate.)

The FDA allows PET to be used in food-contact applications, including food and water bottle packaging, regardless of whether the packaging is intended for single or repeated use. PET Water bottles are designed for single use for economic reasons, not because of any safety concerns with PET.

Refillable bottles made with the same PET resin as single-use bottles are safely reused in a number of countries. The only difference is that refillable bottles have thicker sidewalls to enable them to withstand the mechanical forces involved with industrial collection and commercial cleaning and refilling operations.

Can freezing a PET beverage bottle cause dioxins to leach into its contents?

There is no scientific basis to support the claim that PET bottles will release dioxin when frozen. Dioxins are a family of chemical compounds that are produced by combustion at extremely high temperatures. They can only be formed at temperatures well above 700 degrees Fahrenheit; they cannot be formed at room temperature or in freezing temperatures. Moreover, there is no reasonable scientific basis for expecting dioxins to be present in plastic food or beverage containers in the first place.

RESOURCES

International Life Sciences Institute: Packaging Materials: 1. Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) for Food

Packaging Applications, July 2000.

http://www.ilsi.org/file/ILSIPET.pdf

International Life Sciences Institute: White Paper on Refillable Plastic Packaging Made from PET (Polyethylene

Terephthalate), 1994.

U.S. FDA Information on Food-Contact Substances

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/opa-notf.html

U.S. FDA�s List of �Indirect� Additives Used in Food-Contact Substances

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/opa-indt.html

Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations. For information on PET, see 21 CFR Section 177.1630 and

21 CFR Section 177.1315.

http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_01/21cfrv3_01.html