“Metals from food cans make canned foods unsafe.”
Metals from food cans do not make canned food unsafe.
You do not need to avoid canned food because of the metal can. Canned beans, vegetables, fruit and fish are a practical way to eat well, and the can itself is not a known health problem.
Keep buying the canned foods you like, and pass on any can that is bulging, rusty or badly dented.
Safety note: Don't eat food from a can that is bulging, rusty or badly dented, because it may have a hidden break that lets germs in. This is a spoilage risk, not a metal risk, and a slightly dented can is usually fine.
International food-safety experts link tin from cans to stomach upset only at very high levels, which few cans reach, and U.S. food cans stopped using lead solder decades ago. Confidence is moderate because the human evidence on tin is limited to a small number of reports and studies, though they point the same way.
Metals from food cans do not make canned food unsafe. Some tin can move from the can into the food, but stomach upset has been linked only to very high levels, and U.S. food cans have not used lead solder since before the FDA banned it in 1995.
Most food cans are steel coated with tin, and many also have an inner coating. More tin moves into food from cans with no inner coating. A WHO and FAO expert committee says tin above 250 mg per kilogram in canned foods, or 150 mg per kilogram in canned drinks, may cause stomach irritation in some people. A 2003 review reported a survey finding that almost 4% of uncoated food cans held more than 150 mg of tin per kilogram, and noted that in the UK, where millions of these cans are eaten each year, there had been no reports of illness from tin at 100 to 200 mg per kilogram over the previous 25 years. Lead was the older concern: lead solder once sealed some cans, but U.S. food makers had already stopped using it when the FDA banned it in 1995. Most U.S. food cans also no longer use linings made with BPA, and the FDA's current position is that BPA is safe at the levels found in food, though it is reviewing BPA again.
- Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). Tin (inorganic): evaluation summary. IPCS INCHEM
- Blunden S, Wallace T. Tin in canned food: a review and understanding of occurrence and effect. Food and Chemical Toxicology. 2003;41(12):1651-1662. DOI: 10.1016/S0278-6915(03)00217-5. PMID: 14563390
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Lead-Soldered Food Cans; Final Rule. Federal Register. 1995;60(123), June 27, 1995 (21 CFR 189.240)
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Bisphenol A (BPA): Use in Food Contact Application. Content current as of 04/20/2023
- Geller S. BPA Update: Tracking the Canned Food Phaseout. Environmental Working Group. November 2, 2020