- Popular baby foods may contain dangerous levels of heavy metals, a new Congressional report finds.
- The levels of lead, for instance, are as much as 177 times the amount allowed in bottled water.
- The report shows how manufacturers are held to loose standards, putting kid’s health at risk.
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Popular baby foods, including those made by Gerber, Walmart’s Parent Choice, and even some organic brands including Sprout, contain dangerous levels of heavy metals like arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury, according to a Congressional report released Thursday.
The levels of toxic metals in the products far exceed the limit the US Food and Drug Administration has set for other products like bottled water, the report says.
The findings reveal how baby food manufacturers have been held to loose standards, and have even ignored their own internal standards. The Trump administration, too, ignored evidence of toxic heavy metals in baby foods, the report says, potentially putting children at risk for long-term neurological damage.
The baby foods had up to 177 times the amount of lead allowed in bottled water
To conduct the report, the House’s Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy requested documents and test results from seven of the country’s biggest baby food manufacturers: Nurture, which sells Happy Family Organics; Beech-Nut; Hain, which sells Earth’s Best Organic; Gerber; Campbell, which sells Plum Organics; and Walmart, which sells Parent’s Choice-branded baby food.
Nurture, Beech-Nut, Hain, and Gerber complied, revealing their baby foods contained dangerous levels of arsenic, lead, and cadmium. Nurture was the only company to test for Mercury, which was detected at high levels as well.
The amounts of such metals "eclipse" those allowed in other products. Bottled water, for instance, can't have more than 10 parts per billion (ppb) of inorganic arsenic, 5 ppb of lead, 5 ppb cadmium, and 2 ppb of mercury.
The baby foods, in contrast, had 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.
Exposure to heavy metals in childhood is linked to permanent dips in IQ, an increased risk of future criminal activity, and damaged long-term brain function.
When in comes to lead in particular, "there is no identified threshold or 'safe' blood lead level below which no risk of poor developmental or intellectual function is expected," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Robin Shallow, a spokesperson for Hain, said the report used outdated information and that the company has taken steps to reduce heavy metals, in part by removing brown rice from some products, in its products since a meeting with the FDA last year.
Walmart, Campbell, and Sprout Organic Foods may contain even higher levels, the report says
The levels could be even higher in baby foods made by Walmart, Campbell, and Sprout Organic Foods, the subcommittee said, since those companies didn't comply with its request.
"The Subcommittee is greatly concerned that their lack of cooperation might be obscuring the presence of even higher levels of toxic heavy metals in their baby food products than their competitors' products," the report says.
According to a statement from Walmart, the company did provide information and "invite more dialogue" in 2019, but never heard back from the subcommittee.
Baby food manufacturers aren't required to test final products, if they do any testing at all
The report also blamed the Trump administration for learning through a "secret industry presentation" in August 2019 that baby food ingredient testing is sorely inadequate - and doing nothing in response.
As a result, baby foods with toxic metals still have no warning label, and manufacturers can choose to test ingredients only, rather than the final product, if they do any testing at all.
The only FDA standard for metals in baby food relates specifically to infant rice cereal, and even that standard "is far too high to protect against the neurological effects on children," the report says.
And, the report found, some manufacturers didn't even always abide their own limits on toxic metals.
To course correct, the subcommittee recommended the FDA require baby food manufacturers to test their finished products for toxic heavy metals and label products that contain them. Manufacturers should also be encouraged to "phase out" ingredients with heavy toxic metals. Finally, the FDA should set a limit on toxic metals allowed in all baby foods.
Parents, meanwhile, can avoid baby foods with ingredients that test high in in the metals, like rice products - but not blame themselves.
"Baby food manufacturers hold a special position of public trust," the report says, adding consumers understandably believe the companies wouldn't sell unsafe food, nor would the federal government allow it. "As this staff report reveals, baby food manufacturers and the Trump administration's federal regulators have broken the faith."