A new Consumer Reports analysis released just today found worrisome levels of contaminants in baby and toddler food products. CR looked at baby cereals; packaged fruits and vegetables; packaged entrees; snacks, such as puffs, rice rusks, cookies; and other foods often fed to infants and toddlers. A majority of these foods had concerning levels of cadmium, lead, and/or inorganic arsenic, elements that are commonly known as “heavy metals.”
Consumer Reports are now calling on the Food and Drug Administration to quickly impose new limits to ensure our babies and toddlers are safe. Sign our petition now to call on the FDA to take the following action:
- Establish aggressive targets: Set a goal of having no measurable amounts of cadmium, inorganic arsenic, or lead in baby and children’s food.
- Create and enforce benchmarks: To reach its goals in baby and children’s food, FDA should insist that manufacturers follow recognized best practices and set incremental targets for industry to meet along the way.
- Finalize existing proposed guidelines: FDA should limit inorganic arsenic in apple juice to 10 ppb, and limit inorganic arsenic in infant rice cereal to 100 ppb. Also, it should revise existing guidance for lead in fruit juice to reduce the limit from 50 to 5 ppb, the standard for bottled water.
These heavy metals raise the risk of cancer, type 2 diabetes, and other serious health problems. Children, because of their developing brains and nervous systems, are even more susceptible to the serious risks. In fact, research suggests that exposure to even small amounts of heavy metals at an early age is linked to cognitive and behavioral problems, such as lower IQs and ADHD.
These exposures can have lasting effects. Federal safety watchdogs should take steps quickly to address these problems.
After you’re done signing the petition, please forward this call to action to your friends and family so we can get even more people speaking out.
- Meg Bohne, Consumer Reports
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