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Tuesday 22 July 2014

BPA free canned food??

BPA free bottles are now quite common in baby products, but do you know that BPA exposure is widely spread to all of us? In fact, 93% of 2,517 people in US's national survey found detectable level of BPA in their urine, according to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).


Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical produced in large quantities for use primarily in the production of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. The main source of BPA is from diet via canned foods, consumer products with polycarbonate tableware, plastic food containers, water bottles and baby bottles. The degree to which BPA leaches from polycarbonate container/ bottle into food may depend on the temperature, acidity, salt quantity, fat quantity of contained food. Baby and toddlers are said to be more sensitive to BPA, thus BPA free bottles can be found everywhere now. It is said that higher the BPA level in pregnant women's urine, more tendency to have aggressive, anxious and hyperactive children compared with women with lower BPA.


However we should also consider to reduce BPA intake to prevent a number of illnesses or disorders;
  • Alzheimers dementia
  • Reproductive disorders
  • Heart disease
  • Obesity            
and more, here is some links for studies on BPA related health issues (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bpa-related/index.cfm).


So what is examples of BPA leaked food products, here are few but quite common;
  • Canned coconut milk & cream: Inner lining of can contains BPA and fatty coconut milk and cream help to leak BPA into food content.
  • Canned tomato: Tomato's acidity helps to leak BPA into food content.
  • Canned soup: Commercially available soup is very salty (check label!) and high salt helps to leak BPA into food content.
  • Some, not all, but plastics that are marked with recycle codes 3 or 7 may be made with BPA.
There are also few common things that we could do to leak more BPA into your food;
  • Microwave polycarbonate plastic food containers. Polycarbonate is strong and durable but may break down from over use at high temperature.
  • Water or other drink bottles stored for a long time in a warm condition and even room temperature.


We should then reduce the intake of canned food, use of plastic container (replacing with glassware) and only choose BPA free package or bottle. For young people, dementia seems to feel irrelevant but infertility would raise more of your interest?




According to a food industry's news, there is one company producing BPA free can in US but currently the supply is not available in UK. Here is one example of US company using BPA free can for their coconut milk and other products. We can buy in UK via online shop etc.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unsweetened-Organic-Coconut-Milk-Classic/dp/B0046HLVX8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406035430&sr=8-1&keywords=native+forest