I’ve recently stopped buying any and all brands of canned organic tomato products. I recently found out that all acidic foods, even organic, are packed in cans lined with BPA a very dangerous hormone disrupting chemical that is linked to a whole host of ailments. I prefer to make my own homemade pizza sauce and marinara from tomato products packed in glass to avoid this chemical.
I have to say that I was truly shocked and disappointed upon discovering that even Eden Organics, the company that pioneered BPA free canning, still uses BPA cans for acidic foods like tomatoes. Â I realize this situation is not the company’s fault – Eden really wants a BPA free can for acidic foods. Â Â The FDA has just not approved one yet.
Don’t you just love bureaucratic bottleneck where a major public health issue is concerned?
It’s amazing to me how even if you are all over this stuff like I try to be that a very important snippet of information like BPA cans still being used for all organic acidic foods can somehow slip through the cracks!
In the meantime, I’ve drawn a line in the sand about canned goods. I’m done.  Glass only for me, baby.
I cleaned out my pantry of the very few canned goods I had left in there last week and returned the organic canned tomato products from Eden Organics and Muir Glen (Muir Glen is owned by Campbell Soup, by the way. Ugh!)
My “glass only” resolve came primarily from a comment on my BPA Update blog back in August from Stanley Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat.
“Nanites are tiny particles of various substances, such as silver iodide, nickel,etc, that are used to preserve food and increase shelf life. These tiny particles preserve food by killing bacteria, good and bad. Nobody knows what they will do to a human body. There is concern that these tiny particles could penetrate the cells of human organs and damage them, not to mention killing off beneficial bacteria in our bodies.
There is no labeling requirement for nanites. The government is allowing us to be guinea pigs once again. Nanites are already widely used in food packaging.”
Stanley goes on to say that he will not even buy products packaged in tubes or cartons for the same reason. Â He’s a “glass only” person.
I love it when I learn something very important like this from reader feedback! Â Stanley, I want to be a glass only person too!
I quickly realized in my zeal to go glass only that I was missing one key piece of information – how to make a decent homemade pizza sauce!
So, before returning my last can of Eden Organics pizza sauce, I wrote down all the ingredients on a piece of paper and started experimenting to come up with something that tasted great.
Here’s what I’ve come up with so far.  I’m sure I will be tweaking this in the coming weeks, but this basic recipe turned out quite delicious.  All the kids gave it a thumbs up, which is an encouraging sign.  The only thing I didn’t like is that the sauce turned out a bit too thin.   Maybe next time, I will try half strained tomatoes and half tomato paste (both packed in glass from Bionaturae). That change will probably thicken it up quite a bit.
If you prefer a marinara type of homemade red sauce, you can click over to that recipe instead.
Sarah’s Homemade Pizza Sauce
1 – 24 oz bottle of organic strained tomatoes (sources)
1 TBL organic extra virgin olive oil (sources)
1/2 tsp sea salt (sources)Â
1/2 tsp organic basil (sources)Â
1/2 tsp organic oregano (sources)Â
1/2 tsp organic black pepper (sources)Â
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp organic dried onion (sources)Â
1/2 tsp organic thyme (sources)Â
1/4 cup dulse flakes (sources)Â
pinch cayenne pepper (sources)Â
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Are the tetra containers that Pomi and other products come in safe?
I personally don’t trust tetra containers. Only glass.
Sarah,
The brand “Lucini” also offers organic plum tomatoes in a jar. I buy mine through their website at lucini.com. They sometimes offer free shipping so I stock up on a couple of cases.
Muir Glen is moving away from BPA lined products and they're actually owned by General Mills not Campbell's Soup. Here is a terrific summary of BPA legislative action. We should all be contacting our state and federal representatives asking them to outlaw. Thanks for the great site!
Hi Anonymous, General Mills also get an "ugh". Muir Glen is not moving away from BPA fast enough. They waited for consumer pressure to force their hand rather than doing the right thing from the get go .. typical of a company owned by a corporate conglomerate … not exactly on the up and up. I have stopped buying all their products.
Celeste, wow – using the broth would add a lot of nutrition and flavor to the sauce. Will have to try this next time. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for the post! One thing I've been doing lately in making homemade pizza/spaghetti sauce is using beef broth. I mix tomato paste (love that you can get it in jars) with my homemade beef broth, to the thickness I like. Combined with other ingedients – sauteed vegetables, ground meats, perhaps some pureed liver, and seasonings – it's a great, nutrient-dense sauce! My family doesn't miss the canned tomatoes.
Beth, Thanks for the Tattler site, just placed an order. I love being able to reuse/re-purpose items. I have been using the plastic storage caps that Ball has had on the market for several years for storing/saving food. I have read somewhere else that you can reuse the regular canning lids, haven't tried yet but wonder if the BPA will have been leached out from the first use. Just wondering out loud(in print =}).
how did you take all your canned tomatoes back to the store? did you have a receipt? that never even occured to me…but i might have to try it. i have a dozen or so muir glen cans left in mypantry.
i switched to buying my grocery store (Hyvee) brand organic tomato sauce or marinera sauce…and i use that for pizza sauce. its YUM and a good price. and it only comes in glass jars. i actually use it in any recipe that calles for canned tomatoes or sauce or anything..the extra flavor just adds to the recipe.
Whole Foods will usually take any non-perishable food back without a receipt, and they will generally refund you for any produce that was spoiled (or that didn’t last long), meat that wasn’t at its peak (I’ve had to buy grassfed meat at WF on occasion in a pinch and once it wasn’t good-at all) and any products that you didn’t care for. I don’t think most people exploit this, so they are able to offer excellent customer service (as they should for the cost of things there!) It is nice to know that if I buy a natural care product I don’t like, I can bring it back, and not waste $15.
Sarah, you are right, I am totally glass only in this area. There is just no way to know what they have put into other packaging, (especially since there is no labeling requirement for nanites) unless you contact the company and feel that you can trust what they tell you.
Very nice looking recipe I will try it, maybe with 1/4 tomato paste.
The healthfood store. Tropical Traditions also has them online.