Study Finds Baby Foods Contaminated With High Levels of Heavy Metals

This photograph taken on November 3, 2022 shows baby food on a supermarket shelf in Septemes-les-Vallons near Marseille. Christophe Simon/AFP via Getty Images

Food items consumed by babies continue to have the presence of high levels of heavy metals, thus posing a risk to their development, a new study has found.

Nonprofit Consumer Reports (CR) tested 14 products eaten by babies, ranging from fruits and vegetables, meals, snacks, bars, and puffs, according to the June 27 report. This was a follow-up of CR’s 2018 study that tested 50 foods. Long-term intake of heavy metals can affect the development of children, including causing lower IQ, behavioral issues, and autism. Heavy metals include elements like lead, cadmium, and arsenic. At least three samples of each product were tested by CR. The items selected for testing were ones for which there were “concerning levels” of heavy metals in Consumer Reports’ previous test.

The study found that the overall risk of heavy metal contamination “hasn’t changed much in the last five years,” even as levels of arsenic, lead, and cadmium in baby foods appeared to be getting lower.

Rice and sweet potatoes were found to be “still risky,” CR said about its latest test. “In our 2018 tests, products made with rice, sweet potatoes, and, to a lesser extent, carrots tended to pose the biggest risks. Our latest tests had similar results, especially for sweet potatoes and rice.”

The content of heavy metal in baby snacks—puffs and teething wafers—was seen as “concerning” as children eat them a lot. Many of these snacks are made from rice. “Rice-based puffs are a stand-out for heavy metal contamination,” said Jane Houlihan, research director for the nonprofit group Healthy Babies Bright Futures (HBBF).

As the serving size mentioned by manufacturers can be lower than what many parents think, kids can end up eating a lot of these foods, thus exposing themselves to more heavy metals.

For instance, CR’s daily limit for Hot Kid Baby Mum-Mum Banana Teething Wafers was less than two servings per day. However, a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey showed that 5 percent of kids eat 3.5 servings of this item daily, it said.

James E. Rogers, Consumer Reports’ director of food safety research and testing, pointed out that while the content of heavy metals declined in some of the products, it rose in others, which ended up offsetting any decreases. “So, there was little change in the amount of the foods babies could eat.”

Out of the 14 tested products, there were three items containing sweet potatoes, for which CR recommended less than one serving per day. For five of the seven products made with rice, the consumption limit was set at less than 1.5 servings a day, with the limit at half a serving for the other two items. A full list of the tested product names and images can be found here.

Heavy Metals in Foods

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and arsenic can occur in the environment naturally as elements in the earth’s crust as well as due to human activities.

“Levels in the air, water, and soil used to grow crops, process foods, and raise animals can vary depending on natural geographical differences and proximity to past or current pollution,” it said.

“The amount of arsenic, lead, cadmium, or mercury in certain foods depends on the amount in the environment and how much the plant or animal ‘takes up’ from the environment.”

Other studies have also shown that many baby foods have heavy metal contamination. An August 2022 report (pdf) by Healthy Babies Bright Futures (HBBF) that tested 288 foods found that 94 percent of the tested food samples contained “detectable amounts” of toxic heavy metals.

“We found no evidence to suggest that homemade baby food has lower heavy metal levels than store-bought brands. Heavy metal levels varied widely by food type, not by who made the food,” it said.

Rice cakes and crisped rice cereal were found to be “heavily contaminated with arsenic.” Sweet potatoes and fresh carrots had high levels of cadmium, arsenic, and lead. The report asked parents to skip giving the following four items to their kids—crisped rice cereal, rice cakes, rice-based puffs, and brown rice with no extra cooking water used.

A House Oversight Subcommittee report from February 2021 also found “dangerous levels of toxic heavy metals” in some baby foods at an amount that could cause neurological damage in children.