Tomatoes and BPA
Dr. Mercola, who I occassionally read, recently posted an article titled Avoid These 7 Foods and You’re Off To a Healthier New Year. Topping the list was canned tomatoes, which can leach BPA into your food at a higher rate than other canned foods due to their acidity. My family uses a lot of canned tomatoes, especially this time of year. And beyond processed spaghetti sauces, tomatoes in glass jars are not exactly easy to find here in the middle of nowhere. According to Dr. Fredrick vom Saal, PhD, an endocrinologist at the University of Missouri, who is a leading expert on low dose BPA, you can get 50 mcg of BPA from a liter of canned tomato product. According to him, there have been 231 published studies on low dose BPA effects in experimental animals. Of these, 202 have found harm even at very low levels (less than 50 mcg/kg/day). 29 have found evidence of no harm. The shocking thing is, that the finding of no harm directly correlates with who funded the study, and poorly designed studies. As you may guess, studies funded by the chemical industry always find BPA safe to use. The FDA is currently reviewing the safety of BPA. It was supposed to issue a finding at the end of 2009, but missed this self imposed deadline. No updated statement of safety has been issued.
On the day I read Dr. Mercola’s article, I needed canned tomatoes. So I paid $1.59 , or nearly double the price of the store brand for a 14 ounce can for Muir Glen Organic diced tomatoes, hoping that the organic brand would not use BPA. I then came home and emailed Muir Glen’s customer service department since this informtion was noticably missing from the web page. (Wouldn’t it be nice if the can just said if they use BPA in their processing?) Here is the response I received from the General Mills (who I assume owns Muir Glen) customer service department:
Dear Mrs. Neubert: Thank you for contacting Small Planet Foods regarding bisphenol-A in food packaging. Bisphenol-A is a critical component of protective coatings used with metal food packaging and provides important quality and safety features to canned foods. Scientific and government bodies worldwide have examined the scientific evidence and consistently have reached the conclusion that BPA is not a risk to human health. Recent examples include comprehensive risk assessments in Japan and Europe and a review by an independent panel of experts organized by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. The can coatings used in Small Planet Foods packaging comply with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirements for use in food contact applications. These coatings have long played an essential part in food preservation, helping to maintain wholesomeness, nutritional value, and product quality. We work closely with our suppliers to ensure that all of the food ingredients and packaging materials we use are fully in compliance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirements and meet our high quality standards. We will continue to monitor this situation. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us. Your questions and comments are always welcome. For more information on the safety of metal food containers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration press office may be contacted at (301) 436-2335. Sincerely, Leah Giovanni
Consumer Services
>Original Message From: carissa.neubert@gmail.com
>
>Originated by Consumer I am wondering if you use BPA in your packaging process for any of your products. If so, could you send me a list of which products contain BPA so that I may avoid their use? I love your products and hope that you avoid this harmful endocrine disruptor. Thanks, C. Neubert
Disappointing that it doesn’t say anything about the FDA’s indicision on safety, or offer ways to avoid BPA. This week, Tuttarosso tomato products are on sale at my local grocery store. $9.00 for a case of 12 of the big cans. Now this is almost too good to pass up. But before I ran out to get my winter supply of their wonderful peeled plum tomatoes with basil in tomato sauce, I emailed their customer service department, too, hoping for a different response. Here is their response, from Red Gold:
January 4, 2010
Dear Ms. Neubert,
Thank you for your recent correspondence concerning the use of Bisphenol A (BPA) in the lining of the cans used for tomato products produced by Red Gold, LLC.
We would like to note that BPA is not unique to the white can lining. All canned tomato products contain an enamel lining, whether it be white, clear or gold. Often times, consumers confuse the clear enamel for no enamel at all. Canned tomato products (regardless of the brand) have a naturally high acid content which require the use of a food-grade enamel can lining.
According to our container supplier, the cans supplied to Red Gold have epoxy-based interior coatings for maximum performance and shelf life of your product. Epoxy coatings are manufactured from Bisphenol A, and only extremely low levels (generally less than 37 parts per billion) of BPA have been reported to migrate into some canned foods. At these levels, a consumer would have to ingest more than 500 pounds of canned food and beverages every day for an entire lifetime to exceed the safe level of BPA set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). All of the coatings meet extraction limits set by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as the European Commission Scientific Committee on Food, the United Kingdom Food Standards Agency, the Japan Ministry for Health and Welfare and other regulatory authorities worldwide. In fact all regulatory agencies have stated that there is no health concern associated with Bisphenol A at the levels in which it has been found in our food supply. We trust this is helpful to you and should you require additional information please visit http://www.bisphenol-a.org.
Red Gold is a family owned and operated company, which has been producing tomato products exclusively for over 65 years. Thank you for your inquiry and please feel free to contact us at (866) 729-7187 or by e-mail at info@redgold.com if we can be of any further assistance.
Sincerely,
Red Gold, LLCConsumer Relations Team
I’m not sure where they get the data they quote, but probably from the webpage they direct the consumer to, which is sponsored not suprisingly by a group of Japanese, European, and American Chemistry organizations.
SO, what can we do about this? Please post your ideas in the comments section. Here are my best ideas:
- Watch the 10 Americans video put out by the Environmental Working Group. This will take about 20 minutes, but it is so worthwhile. Donate to EWG if you can.
- Can your own tomatoes!
Tonight’s dinner: leftovers
Hey Carissa, I realize that you posted this is a long time ago, but I’m curious to know if you know any more about BPA since you wrote it. About 6-7 months ago I searched a bit into BPA and have since started a food storage company. I know that our manufacturers say that the enamel lining is important to keep the food from leeching metal from the can into the food, but I’d like to know that what we’re providing is safe for long term storage, not only because the organizations with an interest say so, but because it really is. That said, most of the food we have packaged isn’t wet like tomato sauce, so my thinking is that it would have less an impact on leeching BPA, but that’s just a guess. I’m not keen yet on the chemical reactions that happen with food in cans over time. Thanks for posting these letters. I learned something new, namely, that the lining which uses BPA can be white, gold or even clear. I was under the impression that it was just white.