Buzz
A recent Congressional report published today reveals that many baby foods contain dangerously high amounts of toxic metals like arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and lead. This issue is not new; in 2019, Healthy Babies Bright Futures published a similar report, and the FDA has previously issued warnings about arsenic levels in rice cereal, such as the one we reported on in 2016.
Fortunately, there are ways to minimize your baby’s exposure to these harmful metals. Healthy Babies Bright Futures recommends five strategies, three of which focus on avoiding rice.
Rice naturally absorbs arsenic from the soil it’s cultivated in. Choosing organic rice won’t eliminate this issue; arsenic levels can be high in both organic and conventionally grown rice. Some regions have higher arsenic concentrations in their soil; basmati rice from California, India, and Pakistan tends to have the lowest arsenic levels. White rice generally contains less arsenic than brown rice. Boiling rice with extra water and discarding the excess can help reduce arsenic content.
If nothing else, make sure to check for rice in baby foods (including organic brown rice syrup, which is often used as a sweetener in many so-called 'healthy' snacks). Small amounts may not be a big issue, but try to avoid making rice cereal, rice puffs, and rice teething biscuits a regular part of your child’s diet.
Here are the recommendations from Healthy Babies Bright Futures:
Instead of rice-based snack puffs, opt for snacks made without rice, or offer your baby other options like applesauce, bananas, and cheese. (When my kids were young, snack puffs weren't common, so we kept them busy with Cheerios.)
Instead of rice cereal, choose infant cereals made from oats or other grains. You don’t have to feed your baby cereal at all, but many pediatricians recommend it because it’s fortified with iron. Your baby can get iron from other sources, like meats.
Instead of teething biscuits, offer your child a frozen banana, or consider alternatives like teething toys or a washcloth soaked and frozen.
Instead of fruit juice, offer water. Apple, pear, and grape juices often contain higher levels of toxic metals, and pediatricians already recommend that toddlers drink no more than half a cup of juice per day.
Instead of carrots and sweet potatoes, try offering a variety of vegetables. Carrot and sweet potato baby foods showed higher levels of lead and cadmium in Healthy Babies Bright Futures’ tests. These vegetables are fine in moderation, but they tend to be popular choices. Aim for a wider variety instead.
While these tips will certainly help, ultimately a larger change is needed. The congressional report suggests that companies should be required to test their finished products (not just individual ingredients) for these toxic metals, and that the FDA should set specific limits for their presence. The report highlights that limits are already in place for other products, such as water:
These results are far higher than what is allowed for other products under current regulations. For instance, the Food and Drug Administration has set maximum allowable levels in bottled water at 10 ppb inorganic arsenic, 5 ppb lead, and 5 ppb cadmium, while the Environmental Protection Agency has capped mercury in drinking water at 2 ppb. However, the test results for baby foods and their ingredients exceed these levels by a significant margin: up to 91 times the arsenic level, up to 177 times the lead level, up to 69 times the cadmium level, and up to 5 times the mercury level.
The congressional report also suggests that the FDA should mandate baby food manufacturers to label the levels of these toxic metals in their products and gradually eliminate ingredients like rice flour, which are commonly high in these harmful substances.
