Tin in canned fruit and vegetables (Number 29/02)

Thursday 22 August 2002

Canned foods make the biggest contribution to tin in the diet and previous surveys of canned foods have found high levels of tin in some products high enough to give a risk of stomach upsets in sensitive people.

The Food Standards Agency has worked with industry and enforcement officials to find out the cause of contamination and to ensure measures are introduced to minimise the likelihood of high levels of tin in food.

This survey was undertaken to provide up-to-date information on the levels of tin in canned foods and identify whether these measures are working. The key facts are:

• These survey results do not raise any general food safety concerns.
• Four hundred samples of tomato-based products and of other canned fruit and vegetables were analysed for tin.
• Tin concentrations in 99.5 percent of samples were below the regulatory limit of 200 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg). One sample of spaghetti in tomato sauce and one sample of gooseberries were above this limit. The Food Standards Agency immediately informed the retailers and suppliers of these products who withdrew them from sale and issued notices in stores and in the national press to advise consumers to return any unused cans.
• Tin concentrations were similar, or lower, than those reported in previous surveys. This reflects that measures introduced by the industry, such as the increased use of fully lacquered cans for acidic foods, have been generally effective in controlling and reducing the amount of tin in canned foods.
• Dietary exposures to tin for average and high level consumers of canned fruit and vegetables are well within the safety guideline set by the Joint WHO/FAO Expert Committee on Food Additives.