This isn’t new. When I was freaking out about BPA in baby bottles and drink bottles, all the info I was reading listed BPA as a common ingredient in the lining of canned food.

CTV and the Globe and Mail did tests on canned goods and discovered that not only is the BPA there, it’s in higher concentrations than was found in plastics.

While baby bottles leach about 6 parts per billion of bisphenol A (BPA), the exclusive tests of food cans show:
* A can of children’s ravioli leached 6 parts per billion.
* A can of peas and carrots leached 7 parts per billion.
* A can of tomato juice leached 14 parts per billion.

Studies have shown when cans are heated in the manufacturing process, BPA leaches out of the linings. Foods are first sealed in cans and heated to kill bacteria in the food. Cans are heated to temperatures between 116 C and 121 C, and the length of time varies according to the type of food.

Because these findings show that BPA leached out of the cans and into water, it can be assumed that the chemical is leaching into the food itself when the cans are heated during the pasteurization process. [source]

I quickly removed ALL plastic with a bad plastics number from my house, what will I do about the cans?

London Drugs removed all the BPA plastic products from their shelves, will they be so quick with the cans?

The Federal Government is taking steps to have BPA declared a dangerous substance. There are alternatives to make plastics without it, what about cans? Can we can tomatoes, corn, peas and beans WITHOUT BPA?

Yes. Eden Foods made the switch almost a decade ago - but it’s costly.

Eden Organic Beans are packed in lead free tin covered steel cans coated with a baked on oleoresinous c-enamel lining that does not contain bisphenol-A (BPA). (Oleoresin is a natural mixture of an oil and a resin extracted from various plants, such as pine or balsam fir). These cans cost 14 percent more than the industry standard cans that do contain BPA. This costs Eden $300,000 more a year. To our knowledge Eden is the only U.S. company that uses this custom made BPA-free can. [source]

Eden Foods are available locally at Whole Foods, Nesters, BuyLow and other more organically inclined grocers, check the store locator on their site for a full list.

I prefer frozen vegetables to canned, as there isnt as much sodium in a bag of corn kernels, vs a can. But I buy canned tomatoes and beans to make sauces. What about canned tuna?

Oh, don’t worry about canned beer (for now) - the temperatures aren’t high enough during the canning process to leach out the BPA - but it’s there.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 8:27 am and is filed under food, health, insight.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.