Testing for BPA: Concern over canned foods

Consumer Reports recently tested a variety of canned foods to determine whether they contain Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used in the epoxy resin linings of most food and beverage cans. We found that even samples of canned food we tested from manufacturers who aim to reduce consumers’ BPA exposure by using non-epoxy based can linings had measurable amounts of the chemical.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration currently is reassessing what it considers a safe level of exposure to BPA, which some studies show is linked with increased risks of certain cancers, diabetes, reproductive abnormalities, and heart disease. Federal guidelines currently put the daily upper limit of exposure at 50 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight. But that level is based on experiments done in the 1980s rather than hundreds of more recent animal and laboratory studies indicating that serious health risks could result from much lower doses of BPA.

Mounting scientific evidence of the chemical’s health risks prompted Eden Foods President and Chairman Michael Potter more than a decade ago to search for BPA-free cans for the canned foods produced by his Ann Arbor, Mich.-based natural foods company. In an interview with Consumer Reports, he explained that he eventually negotiated a deal with Ball Corp.—famous for its glass jars—to manufacture BPA-free cans starting in 1999 for Eden’s bean products, including chili. The inner coating of those cans is an oleo-based material originally known as “corn enamel,” which was commonly used in food can linings prior to the 1960s. That’s when epoxy resins took over the market because they helped extend shelf life without affecting flavor, according to Scott McCarty, spokesman for Ball Corp.

Potter says that finding a supplier of cans that weren’t lined with BPA-containing epoxy resin was a difficult and frustrating process. “I made hundreds of calls to can manufacturers trying to find out what was in their can linings and I always ended up talking to an attorney in the Beltway who informed me to my amazement that it was a trade secret and I had no right to know,” says Potter.

The Ball Corp. eventually agreed to produce custom runs of cans with oleo-based C-enamel linings for Eden. It’s also doing research to develop BPA-free can coatings that could work for more acidic foods such as fruit, which Eden now markets in glass containers. “It’s costing me 14 percent more for these BPA-free cans, but I said I have to do this because not only do I eat canned foods, but so do my kids and grandkids,” Potter says.

Even so, the samples of Eden Baked Beans in our tests were found to contain an average of one part per billion of BPA. That’s far below many other food products we tested, which ranged up to a high of 191 ppb for a single sample. The fact that the Eden Baked Beans we tested still had any measurable amounts of BPA—even though our tests confirmed the cans did not have epoxy-based linings—suggests that food can have multiple sources of exposure.

BPA is now one of the highest-volume chemicals in the world, with more than 100 tons released into the atmosphere per year. Various studies have found BPA in dust and water samples from around the world. This unavoidable environmental exposure makes it all the more important to eliminate the use of BPA in can linings and all materials that come in contact with food. Consumers Union is calling upon manufacturers and government regulators to do just that.

Comments

[Theresia]

If all these companies have a healthy product, they can surely create their OWN packaging and stop passing the buck to container manufacturers. If they didn't order containers from non-compliant manufacturers, the industry would soon change.
Greed is at the center of all this; when a company doesn't care about the well being of its customers and knowingly causes harm,they have become slaves to greed, caring more about their profits than lives.
we'll see how BPA has alter altered the genetics soon.

[Robert Wilson]

It seems that society and all that is arround it is falling apart at the seams. Were it not for Consumer's Union, I would not know about these issues. The FDA is asleep at the wheel.

[moshe]

It's very simple – don't eat or drink from anything made from petroleum = oil.

Oil and it's "sub products" – including BPA, are not healthy in any dose.

Live simple don't eat or drink oil chemicals.

Let's use our common sense – don't trust interests of others.

Be wise - Be healthy.

[Don]

Even at 1 ppb BPA in the beans, this could exceed the exposure that Consumer Reports proposes (0.0024 microgram/Kg body weight/day). A 165 lb (75 Kg) person eating just 1 cup (~250 gm) of the beans would have an exposure of 0.0033 microgm/Kg/day which is above your proposed limit already. The total yearly consumption eating 1 cup/day (not counting any other foods)would be 91 micrograms, which is 0.09 milligrams for the whole year. To compare, a "baby" aspirin is 81 milligrams or almost 1000x more.

[Hank]

what about sport mouth guards or the night guards to prevent tooth grinding? Any BPA in these often used products.

[Carol]

What about the PVC tubing used for water pipes in our home. Don't those contain BPA as well?

[Kay Mattson]

So what brands/specific canned items had the high BPA?
Where do we get the actual data????"

[Gene Shires]

What Happened To Our FDA, consumer Protection Agency,and Moral values? Money Is King? How Pitiful! This is more reason Chinese imports should be banned. If The USA has problems, Think what all China Has Sent- Lead- ????

[Kathy]

Your article talks specifically about cans, yet your picture shows Juicy Juice boxes. Would that juice also contain the higher level of BPAs?

What are the average levels of canned soda? Would it be safer to drink out of the plastic bottles?

[R Johnson]

The smoke stacks of coal fired power plants are being updated with fiberglass liners that are made from resin based material containing Bisphenol A.

Do the emissions from the updated power plants contain BPA?(Do the emissions from the old stacks contain BPA?) What is the effect on the humans and on the animals and the plants we eat?