Bisphenol A in domestic and imported canned foods in Japan

Abstract

Bisphenol A (BPA) concentrations were surveyed in 100 domestic and 60 imported canned foods purchased from the Japanese market in 2011–12. BPA was extracted from the canned foods, derivatised by ethylation and analysed using GC-MS. In the domestic canned foods, the maximum and average BPA concentrations were 30 and 3.4 ng g⁻¹, respectively, while in the imported canned foods they were 390 and 57 ng g⁻¹, respectively. The BPA level in the domestic canned foods was significantly lower than that in the imported canned foods. Based on these results, the intakes of BPA from the domestic and imported canned foods in Japan were estimated as 644 ng person⁻¹ day⁻¹. The Japanese BPA intake was the second lowest following New Zealand, although imported canned foods increased. It was sufficiently lower than the tolerable daily intake of EFSA and the USEPA. The drastic reduction of BPA in the domestic canned foods should be due to the ‘BPA reduced cans’ that Japanese can manufacturers had developed in the late 1990s and became widely used in Japan.

Keywords:

• bisphenol A
• can coating
• canned foods
• GC-MS
• intake
• BPA reduced can

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan and the authors acknowledge funding under the Health Labour Sciences Research Grants [grant number H21-Food-General-015].