The latest tests for BPA levels in canned foods are very unsettling. BPA, if you remember, is a chemical that mimics estrogen in the body, causing numerous health problems. It is used extensively in the plastics industry. In the food industry, BPA is used in the lining of food and drink cans (including soda!). Alarmingly, cancer and infertility have both been linked with BPA.
The National Workgroup for Safe Markets has recently reported that canned foods, many of which are labeled “organic”, were found to have an average of 77 parts per billion (ppb) of BPA, almost 5 times higher than what the FDA found testing BPA levels in canned food back in 1996. 92% of the samples tested contained measurable levels of BPA.
The report, aptly titled No Silver Lining, found no link between the age of the product and BPA levels. Moreover, price, quality, or nutrition value of the product had absolutely no bearing in the levels of BPA detected. Therefore, organic canned foods were found to be just as likely to be loaded with BPA as cheap nonorganic ones.
This report puts additional pressure on manufacturers who must step up efforts to hasten implementation of alternatives to canning, such as glass jars. In the meantime, consumers beware. Canned foods need to be avoided even more urgently than we thought. I will be switching away from canned coconut milk immediately. I have already switched to a brand of organic tomato products which use glass jars instead of cans.
Please comment with any brands you know of that are utilizing alternative packaging to cans. BPA has shown itself to be a chemical that we cannot take any chances with in any amount.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
I buy as much as I can from Eden Foods Organic
I like their jars in part because I can easily soak off the labels and reuse them
I like their cans, (when I buy cans) because they use a vegetable resin enamel which was used prior to poisonous BPA and BPS, they have been doing so since the 90’s
I also like and buy from the following organic companies Jovial, Bionature, and Bella Terra (Bella Terra’s diced tomatoes rock! Italian diced tomatoes are not like American diced tomatoes, in a pinch makes a quick, excellent Italian style pasta sauce with minimal work)
The only thing I do not like about the last three companies is the glue they use on their labels, it is VERY difficult to remove, I’ve written to them asking them to reconsider what they’re using but so far they’re still using the same stuff
I reuse the glass jars so I don’t have to loan out my ball jars
NO ONE gets my canning jars lol which is another reason I like to buy in glass
I can share what I make and not loan out my beloved canning jars
An old PSA from the 1960’s “it’s perfectly clear glass is better”
Just because the can says BPA free, doesn’t mean there is not BPS in there. Did people read this article?
Cause and effect have not yet been established for BPA in humans. That’s a very tricky thing to do. To claim that one specific substance “causes” something in the absence of any other substance is virtually impossible.
Hi Amy,
I read that too, and the inside of the lids, the plastic part, contains BPA.
I use POMI tomato sauce( from Italy),strained tomatoes, and chopped tomatos in cartons, which, by the way, has only one ingredient, “tomatoes”, and uses BPA free cartons. My Publix often has theese on sale, and when that happpens, I stock up! I stopped using cans, except for Eden brands, because they use BPA free cans also. I have found organic pumpkin and organic cranberry sauce in BPA free cartons, I think it was Pacific brand.
I read somewhere that the lids of glass jars have BPA including Mason jars. Do your own research as I don’t want you to take my word for it but glass may not be all that safe yet.