Several studies have found significantly higher concentrations of this free bisphenol A, suggesting sample contamination.

“If it’s much more than 1 percent you know the bisphenol A came from contamination,” explained Teeguarden.

What about the possibility that BPA accumulates in the body over time?

“It doesn’t bioaccumulate in the fat tissues, and it washes out very quickly from our bodies so there’s no risk of accumulating this material over time,” said Teeguarden. “The stuff is 99.9 percent metabolized when you ingest it. It’s washed out of your body within 5-8 hours.”

Instead of being a risk to health, BPA actually promotes food safety, said Marianne Smith Edge, IFIC’s Senior Vice President of Nutrition and Food Safety.

“It’s used to prevent the corrosion of cans,” she noted during the news conference. “It’s used to prevent contamination of foods…BPA packaging does serve as an important food safety vehicle in protecting foods from pathogens and contaminates.”

Some argue that FDA should regulate BPA because other governments, including those in Belgium, Canada, France, Japan and the European Union, have banned the substance.

Dr. Mitchell Cheeseman, a 20-year veteran of FDA’s Office of Food Additive Safety, said the science in support of BPA’s safety is overwhelming, and that those decisions were made by legislative bodies against the advice of scientists, including the European Food Safety Authority.

“Risk managers in each of those countries have chosen to take action against BPA without consideration of the risk assessments they’ve received from their own scientists,” he said during Thursday’s press call.

Echoed Teeguarden, “The France ban has been blocked by objections from 6 European countries.”

FDA made its decision to allow BPA in packaging by taking a large body of scientific evidence into account, says Cheeseman.