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New concerning report on heavy metals in baby food released
A new concerning report on heavy metals in baby food was made available this week. This comes after the Food and Drug Administration vowed to take action. Yet, little progress has been made.
CHICAGO - A new concerning report on heavy metals in baby food was made available this week. This comes after the Food and Drug Administration vowed to take action. Yet, little progress has been made.
Your toddler might be in high school before the FDA follows through with its own guidelines to reduce the amount of heavy metals in baby food.
That is why groups like Consumer Reports are trying to hold their feet to the fire.
"The results of that study showed us that about 68 percent of those products had at least one, even more, heavy metals at levels that concerned us," said Dr. James Rogers, Consumer Reports Food Safety Research and Testing Director.
Cadmium, Lead, Mercury and Arsenic.
That's what Consumer Reports found when they tested 50 top baby food products five years ago.
This year, they tested seven of the most concerning products again, and this is what they found.
"Three of the products actually did worse," said Rogers.
Those products included Hot Kid baby mum-mum banana teething wafers, Gerber chicken rice dinner and Gerber turkey rice dinner.
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Product ingredients include sweet potato or rice, which are two of the most common foods that can contain arsenic or lead.
"Later on down the road, if you're concerned about ADHD, behavior problems, those types of things, that's when you're going to see it," said Rogers.
Consumer reports encourages parents to look at their serving-size guide for products that contain harmful ingredients.
They recommend substituting rice-based puffs and snacks with fresh fruits and vegetables, like mashed bananas.
And instead of only feeding infant rice cereal, rotate with other grain-based cereals like oat and wheat.
Consumer Reports has teamed up with other parent-led coalitions to pressure the FDA to crack down on baby food manufacturers before it's too late.
"We're not happy, we think the limits should be lower and they should be implemented much faster," said Rogers.
Consumer Reports reached out to the baby food companies we named in this report. Hot Kid did not respond.
Gerber said they test both their raw ingredients and final products for heavy metals to make sure they fall within levels considered safe.