Pantry
Fewer chemicalsMost cans no longer use BPA, but they’re still lined with a plastic coating. Beans in glass skip it, and dried beans are cheapest of all.
Our pick
Jovial 100% Organic Kidney Beans, 13 oz glass jar
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Beans packed in glass skip the can lining, and our pick’s maker says its jar lids are BPA-free. Cheapest of all: cook dried beans in any pot you already have.
Food cans are lined with a plastic coating. Can makers say at least 90% of US food cans had moved off BPA-based linings by 2018, mostly to acrylic and polyester coatings. Older epoxy linings could leach BPA: in a Harvard trial, five days of canned soup raised people’s urinary BPA more than tenfold.
General information, not medical advice. Ask your doctor, especially if you’re pregnant, nursing or have a health condition.
Beans in glass jars cost several times more than dried beans. Dried beans take time: soak them overnight, simmer about an hour, then freeze portions in glass jars so they’re as grab-and-go as a can.
Jovial 100% Organic Kidney Beans, 13 oz glass jar: The beans sit in glass. The lid is metal, and the maker says it's BPA-free.
Health and safety facts on this page come from these sources. What a pick is made of comes from its maker's listing or website, as stated on the date we checked.
Pantry
Canned albacore averages nearly 3× the mercury of canned light tuna in FDA testing, and about 27× that of sardines.
Our pick
Wild Planet Skipjack Wild Tuna in Pure Olive Oil, 6.7 oz glass jar, 6-pack
Pantry
In FDA testing, basmati and short- or medium-grain white rice averaged about a fifth less inorganic arsenic per serving than white long-grain rice, and a 5-minute parboil before cooking cut white rice’s levels by up to 73% in a lab study.
Our pick
Nishiki Medium Grain Rice, 5 lb (80 oz)
