Monitoring of bisphenol-A-diglycidyl-ether (BADGE) in canned fish in oil

A survey at the European level was initiated on the quantification of bisphenol-A-diglycidyl-ether (BADGE) in canned fish in oil in order to assess the exposure of BADGE. A total of 382 canned fish samples were collected from all 15 Member States and Switzerland and analysed for BADGE in fish. The fish was extracted first with hexane and reextracted with acetonitrile, followed by a membrane filtration and reverse phase HPLC analysis with fluorescence detection. The analysis of the fish showed that about 3% of the samples contained BADGE at a level above 1mg/kg. The samples exceeding the limit by a larger margin were mostly from anchovy cans and cans manufactured in 1991-1995.