Baby
Toxic metals in baby food What families can do By Malia Jacobson
Pediatricians have long recommended simple, fresh staples like bananas and peas as healthy options for baby’s first solid foods—the less processing, the better. Those recommendations took on added importance when a new government report revealed neurotoxins like lead and arsenic in well-known packaged foods for babies.
Sheela Sathyanarayana, MD, MPH, a principal investigator in the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington, and an adjunct associate professor in the UW Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences.
The report, called “Baby Foods Are Tainted with Dangerous Levels of Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium, and Mercury,” was released in February 2021 by the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy Committee on Oversight and Reform in the U.S. House of Representatives. In it, the subcommittee reported that high levels of toxic metals were found in popular products made by seven of the most recognizable baby food brands in the U.S., including Nurture (maker of HappyBABY and Happy Family Organics), Beech-Nut, Hain (maker of Earth’s Best Organic), Gerber, Walmart, Campbell, and Sprout Organics Foods.
Rigorous testing of food products may not adequately protect consumers, either. Aside from FDA-imposed regulations, many companies conduct their own tests for unsafe toxins, says Sathyanarayana. “The report showed that many of these companies had their own internal tests for toxins, and that they were having trouble meeting their own internal standards.”
Within two weeks of the subcommittee’s report, the FDA released a response that emphasized regulations in place to protect consumers from harmful toxins in foods. The report reminds us that even with regulations in place, it’s easy to unknowingly purchase potentially harmful products, says 18 Our Kids Magazine | May/June 2021
The news is particularly troubling because toxic metals can negatively impact brain development during an important stage in a child’s growth. Research links lead exposure in early childhood to developmental delays and decreased intelligence. Because lead and other metals are environmental toxins present in everything from soil to paint to lead-glazed ceramics, and because pound per pound, children take in more food, water, and air than adults, young children can accumulate more lead than adults with similar levels of exposure. FRIEND US @ facebook.com/OurKidsMagazine210
