New Indian draft standard for plastic feeding and drinking containers for children
On 17 August 2023, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) published a New Indian draft standard for plastic feeding and drinking containers accessories and cutleries for Infant and Child Use Specification. This is a new Draft Indian Standard which prescribes the requirements, methods of sampling, safety aspects and test method for feeding and drinking containers and accessories for infants and children. The draft is open for comments until 16 October 2023.
The standard does not apply to infant feeding bottles and teats for feeding bottles, as standards for those products are already covered under IS14625 and IS3565. The full text of the draft standard can be found here.
Materials
The material used for feeding and drinking containers, its accessories and cutleries for infants and child use shall be made of the following materials:
- Thermoplastic elastomers (TPA) according with ISO 18064
- Polyether sulfone (PES) complying with ISO 24025-1
- Polypropylene (PP) complying with ISO 10910
- Other olefin-based polymers
- Other co-polyester materials
- Raw materials like silicone rubber
The standard recommends that the materials used must be free of bisphenol-A (BPA) and that ISO 18857-2 or EN 13130-13 (European standards) is used to determine the absence of BPA. Furthermore, the standard prohibits the usage of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in the production of the mentioned products.
Manufacturers must follow good manufacturing practices (GMP).
Limits for heavy metals
- The following table lists the permissible levels for heavy metals in plastic feeding and drinking containers set forth in the draft standard:
| Heavy metals | Maximum migration limits |
| Barium | 0 mg/kg |
| Cobalt | 0.05 mg/kg |
| Copper | 5 mg/kg |
| Iron | 48 mg/kg |
| Lithium | 0.6 mg/kg |
| Manganese | 0.6 mg/kg |
| Zinc | 25 mg/kg |
| Phthalic acid, bis (2-ethylhexyl ) ester (DEHP) | 1.5 mg/kg |
For containers, accessories and cutleries made of silicone rubber the standard gives the specific migration of heavy metals listed in the table below.
| Heavy metals | Maximum limit |
| Antimony | 15 ppm |
| Arsenic | 10 ppm |
| Chromium | 10 ppm |
| Mercury | 10 ppm |
| Cadmium | 20 ppm |
| Lead | 25 ppm |
| Barium | 100 ppm |
| Selenium | 100 ppm |
Categories of products
The draft standard contains images of the commonly used designs, shapes and sizes. The products divided into three categories as follows:
- Containers: bowls, drinking tumbler/cups/mugs, double wall insulated sippy cups, drinking glass, container with breast pump, fresh fruit feeders, 360 degree magic cup, medicine feeders, plates, spout cups, sippy spout bottles, sippy straw bottle, water bottles.
- Accessories: spoons, straws, spouts, pipes, air vent systems, handles, locking rings, sealing disks, protecting caps, breast shields, valves, slings.
- Cutlery: spoons, forks.
