As the Food and Drug Administration continues its investigation into the safety of bisphenol A (BPA)—that ubiquitous, endocrine-disrupting chemical found in plastics listed #7, almost every food or beverage can, sales receipts, and other products—food manufacturers are taking it upon themselves to find an alternative for it. But the search is proving difficult, especially for canned goods, reports The Washington Post. Even those like Eden Foods, who’ve switched to “BPA-free” cans for some products have found trace elements of it in those same cans. Makers of plastic bottles have had an easier time of it, using polypropylene as a BPA-substitute, but alternatives for canned-food makers are more elusive.
A source at a major food company spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity, telling the paper, “It doesn’t matter what FDA says. If consumers decide they don’t want BPA, you don’t want it to be in a can that consumers don’t want to buy. … We don’t have a safe, effective alternative, and that’s an unhappy place to be. No one wants to talk about that.”