Beech-Nut baby food, Santa Cruz Organic applesauce and Starbucks’ popular bottled iced coffees are among the 16,000 food and beverage products that may contain bisphenol A, or BPA, which has been declared toxic to the female reproductive system by the state of California, according to analysis of industry data from the Environmental Working Group.

However, most grocery shoppers may never know about the chemical’s presence, because individual warnings on food products that contain BPA are not required ? even though California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment last month added the chemical to the list of toxic chemicals known to cause reproductive harm. Under California Proposition 65, that status requires consumer notification. Yet the only way customers will know about potential BPA in their food products comes in the form of general warning signs at the checkout counter of supermarkets, similar to the kind posted in gas stations, though more specific to BPA.

BPA is commonly used for making plastics and epoxies that go into linings for many different types of food and beverage containers, especially metal lids and cans. The specific food and beverage products that potentially contain BPA were recently made public by the Grocery Manufacturers Association and other industry groups. In an effort to share that information with consumers, the Environmental Working Group has now organized the list of products into a new searchable database.

“It’s in baking decorating sprays, aerosol cans, beer kegs ? it’s all over the place,” said Samara Geller, an author of the report and a database and research analyst at the Environmental Working Group’s Oakland office.

That substantial list also includes many Coca-Cola products, Vlasic kosher dill pickles, Chicken of the Sea tuna, Swanson beef broth and Pace chunky salsa.

The question of whether BPA should appear on specific food labels fits into the national debate over what information consumers should have access to when grocery shopping.

“We would prefer if this stuff were labeled on the can or on the package directly, as opposed to having to dig around in a database to find products that contain female reproductive toxins,” Geller said.

After the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced in 2010 that it had “some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, infants and young children,” it said it would support voluntary industry efforts to remove BPA from products, especially baby bottles and infant formula containers. But in 2014, the FDA reiterated its overall message that BPA levels are safe at the low level they occur in foods, based on a four-year review of 300 scientific studies.

“Scientists and regulatory agencies in the U.S. and across the world have concluded that BPA is safe for use in food packaging,” the Grocery Manufacturers Association said in May, in a press release regarding Prop. 65 disclosure.

Nevertheless, many states have individual laws limiting the use of BPA. California law prohibits the sale of cups and bottles intended for children under 3 years old that contain more than 0.1 parts per billion BPA.

According to an analysis that the Environmental Working Group published in 2014, around a third of the food and beverage brands sampled still regularly used BPA in packaging. Some prominent brands, like Campbell’s and Del Monte, recently announced plans to discontinue its use.

Consumers should expect to see the BPA warning signs at checkouts until at least next May, said Sam Delson of the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. After that, the state could require individual labels on products or shelf signs.

Delson said it’s good news that some companies are planning to phase out BPA, but there are also concerns about what they will use instead.

“On the one hand, we applaud companies that are seeking BPA alternatives,” he said. “But we don’t know what they’re going to replace it with, and replacement chemicals can also have health concerns that haven’t been fully documented.”

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Report-finds-widespread-BPA-in-food-products-8310137.php