Earlier this month, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a ban on using bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles and cups. BPA has been used to harden plastic containers and line tin cans since the 1960s, allowing food to remain safe longer. However, there has been growing concern about the chemical, which is an endocrine disruptor; it mimics estrogen when absorbed by the body. Public concern had already pushed industry manufacturers of baby bottles and cups to move away from the chemical.

While the FDA maintains that BPA does not post a health risk, Crown Prince Seafood is dedicated to providing the safest, freshest, most sustainable seafood possible. We recognize that many of our customers prefer BPA-free canned goods.

To support this, we have over the past several years been pursuing the removal of BPA from the cans of as many of our products as possible. However, it is not always easy to do:

The Crown Prince, Crown Prince Natural, and Ocean Prince lines include product packed in eight foreign countries as well as the United States. We therefore have to work in each locality with available canning materials. Several countries from which we import are strongly influenced by European Union (EU) standards; at this time the EU does not consider the small amount of BPA in can linings a health issue.

Due to this fact many can manufacturers in these countries do not stock adequate or consistent supplies, if at all, of BPA free cans. Crown Prince wishes to continue to be able to provide our customers good quality, modestly priced canned seafood with as little environmental impact as possible. Shipping empty BPA free cans thousands of extra miles, if they are unavailable locally, will add to our products’ price as well as to the degradation of the environment. We will seek to transition all of our products to BPA-free as the correct packing materials become available.

This comes from our official statement on BPA, which is the best place to find up-to-date information on our quest to remove BPA from our product line – including a current list of all of our products that are packaged without BPA free cans.