Toxic Metals in Commercial Baby Food?
Whaaaaat?!
Have you been reeling from the recent news reports about toxic heavy metals in baby food? I cannot tell you how many direct messages, comments and texts I’ve received. Rest assured, we haven’t poisoned our children by feeding them commercial baby foods, and while the findings are certainly concerning and nothing to ignore, it’s also not necessary to bag up all your commercial baby food and throw it in the trash.
Here’s what you need to know, and some practical ways to minimize your baby’s exposure to contaminants that are ubiquitous in the food supply.
What exactly was uncovered? Recent findings by a congressional report released February 4, 2021 found arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury in some brands of baby food. However, this is not new news. A 2019 study by Heathy Babies, Bright Futures found that 95% of baby foods they tested contained heavy metals. A variety of metals and minerals are found in trace amounts in many foods, and some are important for growth and development, such as iron, copper, and zinc.
We’ve known for some time that arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury are in our environment as a result of past pesticide and herbicide use, and that these metals can negatively affect brain development. Most of the heavy metals in foods come from the soil as a result of fertilizers and agricultural practices. As a result of the former use of pesticides and herbicides that persist and remain in the soil, even organically grown foods contain some toxic metals. Processing, manufacturing and fortification with vitamins and minerals add still more heavy metals into foods as well.
The news stories about this congressional report have been a little misleading, because the issue is not unique to baby food. Heavy metals are ubiquitous in the food supply. They exist in tiny amounts in the soil and also can be found in water. In general, this is somewhat alarming and should not be dismissed. However, the problem isn’t necessarily with baby food, it’s with the ingredients used to make it, regardless of whether they are organically or conventionally grown. No baby food brand that I am aware of is completely free of heavy metals, simply because baby food is made from food!
Many common ingredients used to make commercial baby food also tend to have comparatively higher levels of heavy metals, like rice, carrots, and sweet potatoes; does this mean these foods are “bad?” No, it just means that we understand more than ever how important it is to offer them in the context of a wide variety of foods, rather than offering them to babies every day or multiple times throughout the day.
When you really dig in on the numbers in previous studies linking arsenic and negative health outcomes in kids, any exposure to toxic metals that a baby may have had from the baby foods in question in this report are unlikely to even come close to the level of exposure over time that was linked in previous studies with negative effects. In other words, is the report concerning? Yes. Is it cause for panic about the effects of processed baby food? No.
What can we do about it as parents moving forward? Well, more or less the same thing we’ve been doing; my recommendations haven’t changed much as a result of this report, but if I can boil it down to three actions:
1. Don’t beat yourself up
If you’re a parent or caregiver who has fed your baby puffs, rice cereal, or jars and pouches of baby food, please don’t beat yourself up! You did not poison your baby. And if you are someone who has not used commercial baby foods, please do not shame anyone else who has. This is an issue that affects our entire food supply, and parents are doing the best they can with the food they have access to. “Fed is best.” People are struggling enough to feed their families, and some food is always better than no food. Our collective energy is much better spent focusing on a demand for higher standards and better reporting from the FDA, as well as more transparency around manufacturing practices.
2. Serve a variety of foods
Reports like these are part of the reason why pediatric registered dietitians like me are constantly talking about the importance of a varied diet. Different foods offer different nutrients and babies need a wide spectrum of nutrients from all the food groups in order to thrive and grow. On the flip side, different foods (whether processed or not) contain different levels of contaminants. By offering a wide variety, you’re also helping to ensure that babies aren’t taking in too much of any one specific contaminant.
So there’s no need to go and throw out all of your commercial baby food. Processed baby foods can still absolutely be folded into a balanced, varied diet by stretching them out over a longer period of time and serving along with a variety of other foods.
3. Aim for minimally processed, nutrient-rich foods
It’s important to maximize the nutrition in every bite we give to babies because they are small, and still learning how to eat - and a lot of the food offered ends up on the floor, despite our best intentions.
The biggest concern from the report seemed to be the presence of arsenic in rice-based baby foods like puffs, rice cereal and teething biscuits - foods that are not particularly nutrient-rich.
8-month old baby girl eating oats with berries. Thank you to her wonderful parents for allowing to share!
Rice, a common ingredient in many commercial baby foods, tends to have higher levels of arsenic than other grains like oats, barley, wheat and buckwheat. For years, the recommendation was to start solids with baby rice cereal (and some pediatricians are still providing this outdated advice) however, we now know that there are healthier alternatives with which to begin.
At the margins, consider limiting rice and rice-based foods and instead, choose more nutrient-rich alternatives as often as you can, such as oatmeal or cereals made with whole grains like barley or quinoa. Instead of puffs or other baby snacks made with rice, choose alternatives like freeze-dried fruit or plain oat “o” cereals.
Another recommendation is to avoid fruit juice before 12 months and to offer it sparingly if at all beyond that. This recommendation has been around for a long time, not just to help reduce babies’ and toddlers’ exposure to heavy metals, which the report did find in fruit juice, but for other reasons as well, such as protecting their teeth and appetite for food.
There are multiple other benefits to serving minimally processed, fresh whole foods to babies and kids, like expanding their palates and introducing them to different textures and flavors, but as far as a comparison of heavy metals in processed versus unprocessed baby foods, we don’t have data yet which can speak to which is more favorable.
Bottom line
The FDA’s strong commitment to continue to reduce consumer exposure to toxic metals and other contaminants is good news!
If you would like to take action, contact your congressman and senators to advocate further for stricter limits on contaminants and more manufacturing transparency from brands.
If your family enjoys rice, here is an evidence-based recipe on how to cook rice in such a way that it lowers arsenic content. And here are some brands and types that are lower in arsenic to begin with:
Blue Moon Acres rice
Lundberg brown rice grown in California
Rice grown in Madagascar
Basmati rice imported from India and Pakistan and jasmine rice from Thailand (according to this article)
“Mighty Rice” brand grown on the Mauritius island near the Indian Ocean
Rice alternatives: Banza Chickpea “Rice”
If you’re getting ready to start your baby on solids, or if your baby has recently begun his or her feeding journey and you need guidance on food sizing, balanced baby meals, introducing the top allergenic foods, and making sure baby is getting the important nutrients needed for growth and development during infancy, check out my new online course for parents, based on my best-selling book which will walk you through the whole process of starting solids using a baby-led approach.
Most importantly, take heart! If you’ve gotten this far into this article, you are already ahead in terms of educating yourself on how best to feed your little ones...
Thank you to my wonderful intern, Annie Hanes for her contributions to this post.