An EU standard bottle opener design has been proposed by a team led by Pete Grayhurst, chairman of the BSI glass packaging committee & technical manager of British Glass. The design was developed in response to complaints from consumers concerning crown failures, where they were unable to remove caps from bottles. The complaints were persistent, & British Glass was concerned by the potential for small glass fragments or cut lips. Detailed analysis of complaints passed to glassmakers showed that in more than 80% of cases, the cause was the use of an inappropriate bottle opener. It was agreed that a new standard for bottle openers was needed, & the BSI committee developed & simplified an existing Danish standard for openers that had been developed by Carlsberg. The result was BS3414, becoming EN14798. Formal adoption is expected to be voted on by the end of 2005.
