Are reusable plastic cups food safe? What UK food contact rules and the BPA debate mean for a cup

Food safe is a phrase that appears on a lot of cup listings and means very little until you attach it to a rule. In the UK the rule is short, and the debate that sits behind the phrase BPA-free is longer than the label suggests.

The rule a cup has to meet

Article 3 of assimilated Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 is the general requirement for anything intended to touch food or drink. Materials and articles must be manufactured in compliance with good manufacturing practice so that, under normal or foreseeable conditions of use, they do not transfer their constituents to food in quantities which could endanger human health, bring about an unacceptable change in the composition of the food, or bring about a deterioration in its organoleptic characteristics, which is taste, smell and appearance. The same article says that the labelling, advertising and presentation of a material or article shall not mislead the consumers.

That is the whole test. A reusable cup does not have to be made of a particular polymer. It has to be made in a controlled way and not change the drink.

What a declaration of compliance is

For plastics, assimilated Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 adds paperwork. Article 15 requires a written declaration of compliance to be available at the marketing stages other than the retail stage, for plastic materials and articles and for the substances used to make them. The declaration is issued by the business operator, contains the information set out in Annex IV of the Regulation, and has to be renewed when substantial changes in composition or production alter migration, or when new scientific data becomes available.

In practice a venue buying printed cups can ask the supplier for that declaration. A supplier who cannot produce one is telling you something.

What BPA is, and where it is used

Bisphenol A is a chemical used to make some rigid plastics. The GOV.UK page on BPA in plastic, published by the Food Standards Agency in December 2017, describes it as used to make rigid plastics including food storage containers and refillable drinks bottles, and in some protective coatings and linings for food and drinks cans. The COT statement of June 2026 is more specific about the chemistry: BPA is used as a monomer in the manufacture of polycarbonates, epoxy resins and other polymeric materials.

The reusable event cups on this site are listed as BPA-free. Given what the COT describes BPA as being used to make, that is a statement about what the cup is not made from, rather than a treatment applied to it.

Where the BPA ban stands, in the EU and in Great Britain

The position moved in 2026, and it moved differently on the two sides of the Channel.

The EU adopted Commission Regulation (EU) 2024/3190 prohibiting the intentional use of BPA in certain food contact materials. GOV.UK's page on the EU rules and their UK implications, published 25 June 2026, gives two dates: from 20 July 2026, newly manufactured and imported single-use and general repeat-use food contact materials placed on the EU or Northern Ireland market must not contain intentionally added BPA, and 20 January 2028 is the extended deadline for certain specified products. The rules reach Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework.

In Great Britain, the same page is explicit: EU BPA restrictions do not currently apply, and the current legal position remains unchanged unless and until domestic legislation is introduced. The Food Standards Agency ran a twelve-week consultation on a ban on BPA and its analogues in food contact materials in England and Wales, from 2 October to 23 December 2025, with a parallel process by Food Standards Scotland. The summary of responses was published on 4 March 2026, and the FSA has indicated an intention to introduce restrictions in Great Britain subject to the policy and legislative process. As of the check date for this article there is no commencement date.

The tolerable daily intake has also moved. The 2017 GOV.UK page reports the COT adopting a figure of 0.2 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day and states that the level of BPA detected in food in the UK was not, at that date, considered harmful. The COT's June 2026 statement records that EFSA's 2023 re-evaluation set a new tolerable daily intake of 0.2 nanograms per kilogram of body weight per day, a thousand times lower, and that mean and high level consumers of all age groups would exceed it. That gap between the two figures is the reason the question is live.

What to ask a supplier

Three questions cover it. Which polymer is the cup made from. Can you provide the declaration of compliance under Regulation (EU) No 10/2011. Is the cup dishwasher safe, which on this site every reusable event cup and reusable coffee cup is listed as being. The rest is marketing.