--- title: BPA Canned Food: Cans Still Contain BPA in Alarming Numbers description: More than two thirds of cans tested—including products sold by some of America's biggest brands—contain BPA, according to a report canonical: https://time.com/4275601/bpa-replacement-canned-food/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-30T04:01:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T16:18:20.352Z article:section: Health og:title: BPA Canned Food: Cans Still Contain BPA in Alarming Numbers og:description: This report says which companies still have BPA in their canned foods og:url: https://time.com/4275601/bpa-replacement-canned-food/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: BPA Canned Food: Cans Still Contain BPA in Alarming Numbers twitter:description: This report says which companies still have BPA in their canned foods twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # BPA Is Still Present in 60% of Cans in the U.S.: Study > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, twice weekly), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=14a0f1d1-c637-498e-b50a-b1726a369e2d&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Mar 30, 2016 4:01 AM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Mar 30, 2016 4:01 AM UTC Non-profit campaigns and health-advocacy groups have devoted years to alerting the public about how the chemical Bisphenol A, known as BPA, may cause hormone disruption—which is of particular concern for young children and pregnant women. Now, thanks in large part to those campaigns, many food companies have said they will remove the chemical from their cans. But a new [report](http://www.ToxicFoodCans.org) from a group of non-profits shows that many cans on U.S. grocery stores shelves still contain BPA. More than two thirds of cans tested, including products by some of America’s largest food companies, contain the chemical, according to the report. Even in cans where BPA has been removed, the report claims, food companies have provided little information about what they are using in their canned good instead. “This is shocking to us because we’ve been hearing for years now that the canned food industry en masse was moving away from BPA,” says report co-author Janet Nudelman, director of program and policy at the advocacy group Breast Cancer Fund. According to the report, all of the Campbell’s cans tested, 71% of those from Del Monte and 50% of sampled General Mills cans contained BPA. Amy’s Kitchen, Annie’s Homegrown, Hain Celestial Group and ConAgra have all transitioned away from BPA—and that was reflected in the test results in the report, as well; those tested in this study were free of BPA. The report says that some of the companies found to have BPA in their cans have previously made commitments to phase out the chemical. On Monday, Campbell’s announced that it would “complete a transition to cans which do not use Bisphenol A (BPA) linings by the middle of 2017″—the completion of a [promise first made back in 2012](http://www.forbes.com/sites/amywestervelt/2012/03/05/under-pressure-from-parents-advocacy-groups-campbells-goes-bpa-free/#48f741547a73). Del Monte also announced this week that it would phase out BPA this year. Whole Foods was among the companies that have made commitments to eliminate BPA but which was found in this report to have some products that still contain it, has said that “buyers are not currently accepting any new canned items with BPA in the lining material.” Similarly, Alberstons says that it is transitioning away from the chemical in “as many products as possible.” A body of research in recent years has suggested that BPA is an endocrine disruptor linked with infertility, obesity, diabetes and reproductive problems. A [study published this week](http://time.com/4272462/bpa-linked-to-premature-babies-study/) suggests that it may be associated with preterm birth. Some of this evidence, taken together, [prompted the Food and Drug Administration](http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/PublicHealthFocus/ucm064437.htm#understanding) (FDA) to [announce a ban of the chemical from some baby products](http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/17/fda-bans-bpa-from-baby-bottles-and-sippy-cups/) like sippy cups in 2012\. The agency [maintains that the chemical is still safe](http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/FoodAdditivesIngredients/ucm355155.htm) for adults. (A spokesperson for the American Chemistry Council trade group did not return a request for comment on the safety of BPA.) Complicating things is the fact that despite the outcry over BPA, scientists have yet to find a [reliable alternative](http://time.com/3905842/bpa-free-canned-food/) that can effectively serve the same purpose as BPA—keeping the can from corroding and affecting food—without many of the same concerns. Many of the alternatives that have been employed thus far, including Bisphenol S and F, [exhibit the same properties in BPA](http://time.com/3742871/bpa-free-health/), a recent study showed. “The question is ‘What did they replace it with?'” says University of Calgary researcher Deborah Kurrasch, who has written on BPA alternatives. The report was published by product-safety advocacy groups including the Breast Cancer Fund, Campaign for Healthier Solutions, Canada’s Environmental Defence and Safer Chemicals, among others. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4275601/bpa-replacement-canned-food/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4275601/bpa-replacement-canned-food/"},"headline":"BPA Is Still Present in 60% of Cans in the U.S.: Study","datePublished":"2016-03-30T04:01:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:18:20.352Z","description":"A new report shows which companies' cans contain the chemical","url":"https://time.com/4275601/bpa-replacement-canned-food/","keywords":["toxins","BPA"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/toxins/","name":"toxins"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4275601/bpa-replacement-canned-food/","name":"BPA Is Still Present in 60% of Cans in the U.S.: Study"}}]}] ```