To provide an aqueous coating composition satisfying an FDA regulation, containing only ≤20 mass.% of organic solvent, and a crosslinked film obtained from the composition manifests excellent physical properties and high resistance to thermal stress, and free from diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A.

The aqueous coating composition contains (A) one or more water-dilutable polyester polyols having an OH number of 20-300 mg KOH/g and an acid number of 20-80 mg KOH/g, obtained by reacting (a) 49-40 mol% of a carboxylic acid component containing an aliphatic, alicyclic, araliphatic and/or aromatic carboxylic acids with two or more COOH functionality and (b) 51-60 mol% of an alcohol component containing one or more aliphatic, alicyclic and/or araliphatic polyols with number average molecular weight of 62-272 g/mol and two or more average OH functionality, (B) one or more OH-reactive crosslinkers selected from the group consisting of phenolic resins, amino resins, benzoguanidine resins and urea resins each having a functionality (based on OH-reactive groups) of ≥2, (C) water, and (D) neutralizing agents.