Migration of bisphenol A (BPA) from can coatings into a fatty-food simulant and tuna fish

Abstract

The effect of heat processing, storage time and temperature on the migration of bisphenol A (BPA) from organosol and epoxy can coatings to a fatty-food simulant and tuna was determined. Analyses of BPA were performed by RP-HPLC with fluorescence detection. Four migration experiments, performed between 2000 and 2003, using cans with organosol, epoxy and a combination of both types of coatings were performed under different processing conditions and storage times. Migration levels as high as 646.5 µg kg⁻¹ BPA from an organosol coating of tuna fish cans were found using a fatty-food simulant following the heat processing of the simulant-filled cans. Levels ranging from 11.3 to 138.4 µg kg⁻¹ BPA from tuna cans coated with an epoxy resin migrated to the fatty-food simulant during 1 year at 25°C. Levels of BPA migration into a fatty-food simulant from thermally processed and stored tuna cans coated with a combination of organosol and epoxy resins and from vegetable cans coated with an epoxy resin were below the limit of quantitation of 10.0 µg kg⁻¹. Migration of BPA to tuna ranged from <7.1 to 105.4 µg kg⁻¹ during long-term storage at 25°C. BPA levels in tuna cans purchased from three local supermarkets ranged from <7.1 to 102.7 µg kg⁻¹. The highest migration levels were found following heat processing at temperatures as high as 121°C and at times as long as 90 min. Coatings from different can batches can give different levels of BPA migration. The migration levels of BPA found in this work are below the present European Union migration limit, except the 646.5 µg kg⁻¹ found after the commercial heating process was applied to the simulant-filled cans coated with the organosol resin.

Keywords:

• Bisphenol A (BPA)
• organosol resins
• epoxy resins
• migration
• tuna

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful for the assistance of Divina Pacheco, Francisco Vázquez-Ortiz, German Cumplido-Barbeitia, Jorge Mercado-Ruiz, Pilar Cabezón and Paul Kuznesof. This work was supported by funds from CONACYT (project 25737-B and Proyectos Integrales México-Cuba 2001), IFS (Grantee No. E/2822-1) and CYTED (Project XI.7).