Earth’s Best
A couple of weeks ago I went to an event for Earth’s Best baby food. The event was meant to highlight some of the company’s new products and so some bloggers and other press people were invited to come and see what was new in the hopes that they would later write something favorable and help spread the word.
I have a been a huge fan of Earth’s Best since my now 6-year-old daughter started eating solid foods back in 2004. At the time, all of those lovely organic frozen baby foods that are now on the market didn’t really exist and so if you wanted something to feed your child in a super-quick hurry and you didn’t want to make it yourself, you went to a jar (I know, it seems so old-school, doesn’t it?). My local natural foods store carried Earth’s Best products and so I bought a few and quickly started to supplement my homemade baby foods with Earth’s Best jars, cereals and snacks.
Since Earth’s Best has been my go-to organic baby food product for the past 5 1/2 years, you can imagine my surprise when, after asking at the event if the cans for some of their new products contained BPA, I was told that yes, they did. I kind of figured that, in this day and age, any new product that comes in a can and is geared toward children would not contain BPA. But when I asked why this was the case, I was told by Shauna Burke, Director of Public Affairs for The Hain Celestial Group (owner of Earth’s Best), that she did not have an answer but would get back to me.
Today I received an email from Ms. Burke and I’ve reprinted below, with her permission, some of what she said:
“What I learned is that all canned products that contain foods with any amount of acidity are canned in the traditional format –i.e. a can with a thin interior coating which contains BPA. You had mentioned that a different brand now uses a BPA free method of canning and uses baked on oleoresinous within their steel cans. Baked oleoresinous may only be used when canning non-acidic products such as beans. If you look at the label on canned soups by this other brand, they are not canned using the same method as their beans. Any food product containing acidity may corrode baked on oleoresinous and thus it is not a viable option.
Currently, there are no commercial canning alternatives available on the market. At Earth’s Best we continue to research suitable methods of canning as they become available.”
I am pleased that Earth’s Best got back to me with an answer, and I still think they have great products. But I am not an expert in BPA, nor canning processes. If anyone has information and cares to comment, please do so below.
