FDA rolled out its
Total Diet Study Report and the news stories are full of fear-generating titles, such as this one, FDA finds toxic arsenic, cadmium, lead in many baby foods. They quote a clinical nurse ""There's not supposed to be lead or arsenic or cadmium in any foods. So the fact they make it seem like a victory is very troubling,"
FDA is working to determine what levels are achievable. But is zero achievable? Can an action level be set that provides a sufficient level of safety?
The action level for inorganic arsenic in infant rice cereals that FDA considers achievable with the use of such practices is 100 microgram per kilogram (µg/kg), or 100 parts per billion (ppb)
The action level for lead in apple juice for infants is 10ppb, other juices 20ppb.
These passages from the report:
"The TDS has collected and analyzed baby foods since 1975. In the modernized TDS, baby foods are considered national foods (i.e., not expected to vary by region) and therefore are collected once per year as part of the national collection. In FY2019 FDA collected additional samples of baby foods to obtain information about baby foods with unique ingredients and baby foods with higher consumption (per NHANES/WWEIA). The FY2019 additional baby food sampling was conducted in tandem with select regional collections, and therefore also provided an opportunity to compare certain baby foods collected regionally and nationally. In general, the region and season did not have an impact on the analytical results for elements in baby foods. For a summary of analytical results for elements for each food, see the TDS website (FDA, 2022c), where the summary is available to download. The additional baby food sampling contributed to a total of 384 baby food samples in the FY2018-FY2020 reporting cycle. Of the 1536 analytical results for toxic elements, 995 (65%) were non-detects and 541 (35%) had detectable levels."
"Approximately 51% of the baby food samples analyzed had detectable levels of total arsenic. The highest levels of total arsenic were found in infant cereals and snacks like teething biscuits and puffed snacks. These results agree with historical TDS data as well as sampling performed to support the Arsenic in Rice and Rice Products Risk Assessment (FDA, 2016). Six baby foods containing rice and/or juice exceeded a specified level of total arsenic and were therefore further analyzed to determine the levels of inorganic arsenic. These results are provided in Table 4 below (further information on the total arsenic levels that result in speciation can be found in Appendix B, Table 10 and additional details on arsenic speciation results can be found on the TDS website [FDA, 2022c], where the summary of analytical findings for each food is available to download)."
"Cadmium was not detected in 35% of the 384 baby food samples. The highest level (49 ppb) of cadmium was in a sample of baby food containing spinach as an ingredient. The baby food products containing spinach had levels of cadmium which align with the TDS results for cadmium in raw spinach. The second highest result for cadmium was 41 ppb in baby food carrots. However, the mean concentration of cadmium was 20 ppb across the 14 baby food carrot samples."
"Lead and mercury were not detected in 79% and 97%, respectively of the 384 baby food samples. The highest baby food lead result (38 ppb) was found in a sample of baby food sweet potatoes. There were only 13 samples with detectable results for mercury and all 13 were less than 3 ppb."
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2022/07/18/Food-and-Drug-Administration-FDA-foods-nutrients-toxins-total-dietary-study-report/2291658150535/
HEALTH NEWS JULY 18, 2022 / 3:23 PM / UPDATED JULY 18, 2022 AT 5:18 PM
FDA finds toxic arsenic, cadmium, lead in many baby foodsBy Judy Packer-Tursman
