Reply from Ayam about BPA levels

This is a follow-up to Wednesday's post where I asked the Ayam Coconut Milk people about pesticides in their coconuts. Not only did I discover that their coconuts are not sprayed, but also found that their customer services team are top notch.

I then pestered them with a question about Bisphenol A in their can linings. The reply is below, it's a bit hard to read, so I'll copy the text below the email.

Dear Sara,

Thank you for your query regarding BPA in our cans.

There has been indeed an overwhelming debate for the past few years on the safety of BPA with conflicting scientific opinions. 

The purpose of the lining in canned product is to protect food from contamination from the metal of the can and to extend the shelf-life. The epoxy lining, which contains Bisphenol A (BPA), currently applied to our cans complies with the EU directive 2004/19/EC. This directive establishes a specific migration limit (SML) on Bisphenol A migration into foodstuffs or food stimulants of 0.6 mg/kg of food.

We have tested the level of migration into the coconut milk and cream and no BPA was detected. The test used had a detection limit of 0.5 mg/kg.

Our company monitors closely the outcome of assessments done by food safety agencies such as the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), The German Society of Toxicology, the UK Food Standard Agency (FSA) , the  Japanese National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Health Canada, the USFDA and the decisions made by the governments. The latest developments are as follows:

In April 2011, the German Society of Toxicology concluded that the current tolerable daily intake (TDI) level, which was set at 0.05 milligram/kg body weight (bw), was justified and that available evidence indicates BPA exposure represents no significant risk to human health, including to babies. In December 2011, the EFSA reconfirmed its opinion that BPA was safe at the levels the people are exposed to.

Meanwhile, because of the consumer concerns on BPA, the can manufacturers are developing BPA-NI cans (new term in the industry for lining produced without BPA). Our aim is to offer all Ayam Brand products in BPA-NI cans, however, as consumer safety is our utmost priority, we will only be able to do so when the new linings have been thoroughly tested and proven to be safe.

We hope such explanations have clarified your concern and have reassured you. If you have any further questions at all please do not hesitate to contact us.

Note: The FSANZ's position in regards to the BPA can be found at the following link:

www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumerinformation/bisphenolabpa/

(this website also contains further information regarding BPA)

Kind regards,

AYAM™ Customer Care

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I, personally, am comfortable with a BPA level of less 0.5mg per kg (0.5 parts per million (ppm)) of product. This is less than the permitted levels of most common food contaminants (e.g. mercury at 2 ppm) and as I'm not actually living on coconut milk, I think it's ok. 

If you are avoiding BPA for known reasons, such as hormonal imbalances, then you might want to avoid canned products in general, but otherwise, I wouldn't be concerned about this coconut milk. 

And again, two thumbs up for the Ayam team. If they were rolling their eyes at my pedantic questions, it didn't even show.