The Food and Drug Administration has cracked down on baby food companies for years.
Several studies from 2018 showed that many of their products contained toxic heavy metals like arsenic, lead and cadmium.
The government organisation has been pressuring them to remove the contaminants — but a recent Consumer Reports study indicates that their efforts might not have been very successful.
The overall risk of ingestion remains at similar levels compared to five years ago. And the levels of toxic metals in some products actually increased.
Consumer Reports retested 14 of the highest-risk foods from the 2018 study and found that three had decreased levels of harmful contaminants while the levels in the other 11 remained relatively similar or increased.
Gerber's Chicken Rice Dinner and Turkey Rice Dinner flavors and Hot Kid Baby Mum-Mum Teething Wafers had the most notable increases, while Earth's Best Organic Sunny Days Snack Bars strawberry flavour had the most significant decrease.
The products with the highest risk levels were:
- Beech-Nut Sweet Potato
- Gerber Chicken Rice Dinner
- Gerber Sweet Potato Turkey with Whole Grains Dinner
- Gerber Turkey Rice Dinner
For each of those products, Consumer Reports' experts recommend feeding babies less than a half a serving per day to minimise the danger of ingestion.
Collectively, the 14 tested products spanned an array of food types and ingredients, from fruits and vegetables to meals and entrees and snacks like bars, puffs and teething wafers.
Sweet potatoes and rice were common ingredients in most of the highest-risk products, much like the 2018 study found. Carrots were also a high-risk ingredient.
Many of those ingredients absorb the harmful metals from the soil in which they're grown.
Gerber told Consumer Reports that its working with farmers to "prioritise growing locations for optimal climate and soil conditions" and to "approve fields before crops are planted based on soil testing."
Its also ensuring that crops are rotated and continuing to research soil and varietal variables "that may reduce uptake of heavy metals from the soil by carrots and sweet potatoes."
Growing fields can be contaminated near airports and highways where gasoline can seep into the soil. Areas where arsenic pesticides have been used may also be at risk.
In January, the FDA released a set of guidelines designed to lower the allowable levels of heavy metals in baby foods.
It sets action levels of 10 parts per billion for lead in fruits, most vegetables, mixed meals like grain and meat-based mixtures, yogurts, custards and puddings and meat. Dry cereals, ingredient root vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes and beats have an action level of 20 ppb.
If companies exceed those limits, various enforcement actions can be taken, Consumer Reports stated.
"The FDA estimates that these action levels could result in as much as a 24 to 27 percent reduction in exposure to lead from these foods," FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf said in a statement.
Babies and young children who eat large amounts of heavy metals are at a higher risk for behaviour problems, a lowered IQ and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
"Because heavy metals are so pervasive in foods — and because they tend to accumulate in the body — small exposures from multiple foods can add up," said Dr. Eric Boring, a CR chemist who oversaw Consumer Reports' testing.
But he said it's not the end of the world if parents feed their children a serving or two of the highest-risk foods.
"An occasional serving of even one of the foods with the highest levels is generally OK," he said. "Just remember to mix up what your kids eat."
And parents don't have to necessarily prevent their children from eating sweet potatoes or rice, either, said Consumer Reports Nutritionist Amy Keating.
"These are nutritious foods, so you don’t have to eliminate them from your child’s diet," Keating said. "Instead, serve them in rotation with many different vegetables and whole grains."
