Food manufacturers, manufacturers of cans, professional organizations, central purchasing bodies … All of them, to varying degrees, between 2010 and 2015, worked behind the scenes and ignored the establishment of a non-aggression pact intended not to differentiate products whose packaging contained bisphenol A (BPA) – before its ban – from those which did not. However, this endocrine disruptor was present in the manufacture of hard and transparent polycarbonate-type plastics and in the resins covering the inside of metal cans, and therefore liable to pass into food. A law dated December 24, 2012 suspended the manufacture, import, export and placing on the market of any container or utensil containing BPA as of the 1er January 2015. Before its entry into force, the participants stepped up exchanges to coordinate the information given to consumers, as shown in the documents to which The world had access.
This time it is not about a cartel on the prices of sale or purchase. Here, no economic damage for the customer, but a more complex alliance concerning the information which is delivered to him during his act of purchase. In this thick file of more than 500 pages made up like a stack of small evidence, “The accused entities are criticized for having agreed not to communicate on the presence or on the composition of certain materials in contact with food, to the detriment of consumers”, hinted the Competition Authority, October 12. Without giving names or more details, the institution clarified that “Grievances were notified a few days ago in the sector of the manufacture and sale of foodstuffs in contact with materials which may or may have contained bisphenol A or its substitutes”.
Canned soda and cans
This survey concerns 14 professional organizations and 101 companies. Many of them are only subsidiaries of more than forty groups. According to the documents to which we have had access, there are companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Orangina, Häagen-Dazs … But also federations such as the Association of companies of processed food products (Adepale), Alliance 7 – which brings together 10 unions in the grocery and specialized nutrition trades, including the Chocolate Syndicate, Confectioners of France, the Syndicat des aperitifs à croquer -, the National Association of Food Industries and other little-known professional organizations of the great public.
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