On December 10, 2013 a new study published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A reported on a survey of bisphenol A (BPA) levels in canned food stuffs in Japan (Kawamura et al 2013). The study’s authors from the Japanese National Institute of Health Sciences and the Japan Inspection Association of Food and Food Industry Environment detected maximum and average BPA content in domestic products at levels of 30 and 3.4 ng/g food, respectively. Imported products contained 390 and 57 ng/g food, respectively. Based on this data, Kawamura and colleagues estimate Japanese BPA intake from cans to amount to 11 ng/ person/day, an estimate which they argue based on earlier studies acounts for about two thirds of total BPA exposure. In Europe, BPA exposure was recently estimated to amount to ng/kg bodyweight /day by EFSA (EFSA, 2013). The researchers propose that the significantly lower BPA daily intake in Japan is due to the drastic reduction of BPA in food cans which occurred in Japan in the late 1990s.

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Kawamura, Y. et al. (2013). “Bisphenol A in domestic and imported canned foods in Japan.Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A (published online December 10, 2013).

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