The Z Report on BPA In Children's Feeding Products, Third Edition

Please note: This report has been substantially revised and updated since this post was published, most recently in our ZRecs Guide to Safer Children's Products. Much of the information in this post is outdated, and we encourage you to refer instead to our new consumer guide to BPA and other potentially harmful chemicals in children's products, the ZRecs Guide.

Welcome to the third edition of the Z Report on BPA. We have updated our directory to include new products, update company profiles, and rerank companies based on their current plans and shifting policies regarding products that come into regular contact with children's mouths.

Click on any company name in the listings below to find the BPA status of all children's feeding products they currently manufacture, as well as recently discontinued items.

Key improvements over the second edition include:

• The addition of tableware, pacifiers, utensils, feeding aids, pumping supplies, and more
• Coverage of many previously unresearched companies, for a total of 60 companies included
• Company pages now include relevant ZRecs reviews
• The BPA Mobile Project: A text-messaging service to query the Z Report on BPA from your mobile phone for on-the-go recommendations (added Feb. 29)
• A printable wallet card providing basic BPA-free recommendations in key product areas and simple text-messaging instructions (added Mar. 6)
  

The following explanatory text from our previous edition still applies:

By BPA-free, we mean that not only the main body of the item is not made of polycarbonate plastic, but that none of the item's other parts are, either. Some companies provide incomplete information and claim that their bottles or sippys are "made of polypropylene" but cite this fact in a very careful way to obscure the fact that other parts of the equipment are made of polycarbonate. This is why we discuss products one by one with company representatives in compiling our research for this and our other reports.

If your interest or allegiance lies with a particular brand or brands, please view individual company posts for item-by-item listings of which products are BPA-free and which are not, and you can then buy products even from those companies with some confidence. We say "some" because companies which are on the record as supporting the use of polycarbonate plastic are under no legal obligation to inform you if they choose to change the plastics used in their products, and if they believe that polycarbonate is as safe as other plastics, they have no reason to tell you, either.

BPA-Free Brands
For this edition of the Z Report, we have tried to clarify and further refine our company rating system. Before we offer our ratings, which take into account product quality, innovation, the range of products a company offers, their stance on BPA and their openness about sharing information about their products, we should note all the companies that are BPA-free in all their relevant products, companies from which you can buy any bottle, sippy, tableware item, utensil, or breastfeeding accessory and know that it is certain to be BPA-free. If all companies operated in this way, the Z Report would not be necessary; we believe that someday it won't; and until that day comes, we believe that parents concerned about BPA should seriously consider supporting companies which respond to that concern. Those companies are:

Adiri | Baby Bjorn | Baby Cie | BabySport | Babylife (Wee-go) | BFree | Born Free | Brita | Combi | DCI | Ezee Reach | Elegant Baby | Emily Green | Green to Grow | iPlay | Kidbasix | KidCo | Klean Kanteen | Medela | Mother's Milkmate | Mud Pie Baby | Natursutten | Not Neutral | Nurture Pure | Obentec | ORE Originals | Prince Lionheart | PUR | Rivadossi Sandro (Trebimbi) | SIGG | Silikids | Skip*Hop | Steadyco | Thermos | thinkbaby

Company Ratings
Our overall assessments of the companies whose products we cover in this report are intended to serve as an assessment of each company's overall relevance to parents who are committed to reducing the BPA exposure of children in their lives. We have divided companies into four groups based on the described criteria.

Excellent: To receive an "Excellent" rating in the Z Report on BPA, companies must provide attractive, functional products in at least two product categories or exceptional design in one category, with all mouth-contact products being exclusively BPA-free, and must indicate or demonstrate a commitment to providing BPA-free products as a matter of course in the development of new products.

Within this group, we have designated as "Top Picks" companies that have made major contributions in design or overall product-line development to the range of BPA-free options available for U.S. parents. These companies' names are printed in boldface text and their company profiles will feature the ZRecs Top Pick pink starburst for as long as they retain that status.

Adiri
Born Free
Brita
Combi
KidCo
Klean Kanteen
Green to Grow
Medela
Nalgene
Natursutten
Not Neutral
Obentec
Prince Lionheart
PUR
Rivadossi Sandro (Trebimbi)
SIGG
Steadyco
Thermos
thinkbaby

Good: Companies in this category provide predominantly BPA-free mouth-contact products and offer at least one recently-designed BPA-free item in each product area they serve. Companies which do not currently make enough relevant products to be considered major players or who have failed to innovate since an initial product launch may receive this rating, even if their full product line is entirely BPA-free; such companies' names are printed in boldface type.

Avent
Baby Bjorn
Baby Cie
Babysport
Boon
DCIElegant Baby
Emily Green
Ezee Reach
IKEA
Lansinoh
Luvable Friends
Mother's Milkmate
Mud Pie Baby
Nurture Pure
ORE Originals
Sassy
Silikids
Skip*Hop
Tupperware
Zak Designs

Fair: Companies classified as "Fair" may provide excellent products in some categories but produce products in other categories while offering no quality non-polycarbonate option. Companies may express a hostility to the search for suitable alternative plastics for their products, or may have inconsistent and confusing naming, labeling, or communications policies with regards to their products' BPA status. Some BPA-free companies whose flagship products suggest significant design flaws, based on repeated user comments or ZRecs testing, or whose companies' policies, pricing or organizational status limit their products' relevance, are noted with an asterisk (*). Companies deemed likely to advance out of this category before 2009, for reasons noted in their company posts, have their names printed in boldface type.

Babylife (Wee-go)*
BFree*
Dr. Brown's
Evenflo
Gerber
iPlay
Kidbasix*
MAM
Munchkin
Nuby
Playtex
RaZbaby
Rubbermaid
The First Years
Tommee Tippee

Poor: Companies rated "Poor" demonstrate an unwillingness to acknowledge the legitimacy of consumers' concerns about Bisphenol-A and/or offer few or no BPA-free products.

Ameda
Innobaby
Playskool
Phil & Ted's
Second Nature

We'll be updating these listings individually as needed and will alert readers whenever we make major updates to a company post, so if you're interested in following this issue make sure you're subscribed to ZRecs via RSS or email.

We encourage readers who wish to support our research and advocacy to make purchases through product links contained in the directory or using the Amazon.com product search box on the lefthand side of the blog.

You might also be interested in:

• Our BPA Mobile text-messaging service, which we offer free of charge (you simply pay whatever your carrier requires for texts)

To see the main directory page of the previous edition of the Z Report on BPA, click here.

Disclaimer: Z Recommends collects information for its reports from official company websites, company-staffed customer service lines, and company managers and public relations officials. We also update listings as needed to correct or revise information, and encourage readers or company officials to submit questions, comments or corrections as needed to ensure that this information is as accurate as possible. By reading and acting upon the information contained here, you hereby release Z Recommends from any liability for the information provided in this or other ZRecs reports.

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