A brand new report found 67% of nearly 200 food cans from dozens of brands and retailers tested positive for the toxic chemical bisphenol A (BPA), a hormone disrupting chemical linked to breast and prostate cancer, infertility, and type-2 diabetes.
Kroger is a food industry leader who has the power and a moral responsibility to get toxic chemicals like BPA out of food packaging. Kroger is the largest supermarket chain in the United States, and has pledged in the past to reduce their use of BPA in food cans, yet a new report found that most of their cans sampled still tested positive for this harmful chemical. 62% of Kroger’s cans analyzed tested positive for BPA!
Meanwhile, some other leading brands have already eliminated BPA from their can linings.
Studies have shown this hormonally active chemical can migrate out of cans, get into the food our families eat, and make its way into our bodies, where it may be harmful to our health. BPA clearly has no place in canned foods we buy for our families!
It is alarming to read that your company still sells food cans lined with bisphenol A (BPA), a harmful chemical linked to breast and prostate cancer, infertility and type-2 diabetes.
Your company has pledged to reduce the use of BPA in can linings, yet a new report found it is still commonly found in your food cans.
As an industry leader, please do more to ensure that your canned foods aren’t lined with harmful chemicals like BPA or “regrettable substitutes” like PVC or styrene-based resins.
We urge you to develop a comprehensive policy to eliminate and safely substitute BPA in canned foods. Such a plan should be transparent and ensure that replacement chemicals are safe. We support the recommendations from the new report, Buyer Beware: Toxic BPA & Regrettable Substitutes in the Linings of Canned Food and urge your company to:
1) Commit to eliminating and safely substituting BPA from your food cans and other food packaging and establishing public timelines and benchmarks for your transition to safer alternatives.
2) Conduct and publicly report on the results of “alternatives assessments,” using the GreenScreen® for Safer Chemicals or a similar third-party certification tool for assessing the safety of your can linings.
3) Label all chemicals used in can liners, including BPA or BPA alternatives; and demand that your suppliers of food can linings fully disclose safety data, so you can provide a higher level of transparency to consumers.
4) Adopt comprehensive chemical policies to safely replace other chemicals of concern in your products and packaging.
Shopping in the canned food aisle shouldn’t be a “buyer beware” situation. We hope you will show the leadership that customers are counting on by eliminating and safely substituting BPA in your food cans. We look forward to your response.
Thank you.
