Arsenic, mercury, lead, cadmium?the list of heavy metals that have been discovered in baby food and formula goes on. In recent weeks, two concerning studies made the news. Research published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found mercury in little ones? rice cereals. And an investigation by the Clean Label Project found 65 percent of the infant food and formula products had arsenic, 58 percent tested positive for cadmium and 36 percent tested positive for lead. Even apple juice has made headlines for arsenic and lead.
Scary stuff. But what do these studies mean" Should parents be clearing out their cupboards"
The unsettling truth is we just don?t have enough information. While almost all food contains trace amounts of metals, which occur naturally in the earth and can be transferred during processing, a small number of baby food samples have revealed worrying levels. For example, the Clean Label Product study found arsenic levels above 600 parts per billion (ppb), six times the cutoff proposed by the US and European regulatory agencies. But the organization has been criticized for potential conflicts of interest. And studies like this don?t test enough samples to be able to make conclusions about any specific product. ?You would need way more samples,? says Ray Copes, chief of environmental and occupational health at Public Health Ontario. He points out that levels of arsenic, for example, can vary dramatically from one rice paddy (field of rice)...