Walmart, Kroger, Supervalu and Safeway received failing grades for lagging behind in their work to eliminate the use of the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in their private label food and beverage can linings, while Whole Foods and Costco skinned by with barely passing grades, according to a new study.
Walmart, Kroger, Supervalu and Safeway –– along with consumer packaged goods companies such as Coca-Cola, Del Monte, Kraft and Unilever ––received “F” grades from Green Century Capital Management and As You Sow, who conducted the study. Whole Foods received a “D+ “ and Costco a “D”
Whole Foods “is the highest-scoring retailer, largely due to the company's good transparency on this issue, but has not demonstrated that it is actively testing any BPA-free options for its private-label cans despite a commitment to eliminate the chemical from packaging,” researchers said in the report.
Meanwhile companies such as ConAgra, Hain Celestial and H.J. Heinz received “A” grades for their work to eliminate the use of BPA, which studies claim has health risks that could contribute to heart disease, diabetes and developmental problems. BPA is currently used in the linings of many canned foods and beverages and hard plastic products.
A total of 26 companies in the food, beverage and retail sectors were survey, 14 of which received passing grades (A, B, C, or D) with a dozen companies receiving failing grades in the report titled “Seeking Safer Packaging 2010.” Companies such as Delhaize Group, Hershey Co., Hormel and Sysco received failing grades for declining to participate in the survey.
Clearly, the elimination of BPA is more top of this year versus last year with 32 percent of companies surveyed indicating they have plans in place to phase out BPA, versus only 7 percent of companies that indicated the same last year.
"Companies are actually moving faster than regulators in phasing out BPA from food and beverage packaging," said Emily Stone of Green Century Capital Management. "Our data shows that some companies in the food and beverage industry are wasting no time in transitioning out of bisphenol A (BPA) can linings."
Con Agra, H.J. Heinz and Hain Celestial received the highest grade for using BPA-free can linings for some products and for also providing an estimated timeline to eliminate the use of BPA from all product packaging, according to the report. General Mills, which scored a “B+” has committed to removing BPA from its Muir Glen canned tomatoes line but did not provide a timeline for BPA removal from the rest of its canned products.
BPA Scorecard image Source: Green Century Capital Management and As You Saw
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