Starting Wednesday, baby food manufacturers selling products in California will have to make a major shift toward transparency and provide a QR code on their packaging that prompts consumers to check the results for the presence in their product of four heavy metals: lead, mercury and arsenic. and cadmium.
Even low levels of exposure to these compounds can cause serious and often irreversible damage to the developing brains of young children.
The change, required by a California law passed by the Legislature in 2023, will affect consumers nationwide. Since companies are unlikely to create separate packaging for the California market, there will likely be QR codes on products sold nationwide and consumers around the world will be able to see heavy metal concentrations.
While companies must begin printing new packaging and publishing test results for manufactured products starting in January, it may take some time for products to reach supermarket shelves.
The law was inspired by a 2021 congressional investigation that found dangerously high levels of heavy metals in packaged foods marketed to babies and young children. The baby foods and their ingredients had up to 91 times the level of arsenic, up to 177 times the level of lead, up to 69 times the level of cadmium, and up to five times the level of mercury that the United States allows to be present in bottled water. or drinkable. , the research found.
A 2021 congressional investigation found dangerously high levels of heavy metals in packaged foods marketed to babies and young children.
(Jeff Greenberg/Getty Images)
According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture study, about half of dietary lead exposure in babies under 1 year old comes from packaged baby foods and an additional 36% from infant formula. California's law, AB899, does not include infant formula.
The FDA does not set maximum allowable levels of heavy metals for baby foods, but is in the process of developing “action levels” for heavy metals—levels at which the agency could consider additional actions, which could include discussions with the manufacturer about the reduction. the level or ask them to remove products from the market. But even with clearer guidance on this issue, it will likely be difficult for most consumers to interpret the information on the new labels.
Heavy metals are not exclusive to processed baby foods. In fact, they are found naturally in the soil and are also present in the fruits and vegetables sold in the produce aisle or even in the home garden. Heavy metal levels tend to be particularly high in spices and nutritious root vegetables, such as sweet potatoes and beets. High levels of lead and other heavy metals in processed foods tend to come from the raw materials and not the manufacturing process.
“Frankly, the EU [European Union] is ahead of the United States in terms of consumer protection when it comes to toxic pollutants,” said Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Rolling Hills Estates), who authored the California bill. “We hope that one day the FDA will develop safety rules so that consumers can receive guidance and protection from our federal regulators.”
Until then, Muratsuchi said, the law aims to “drive responsible corporate behavior” by making metal levels transparent to consumers and help avoid the kind of extreme crisis that occurred in 2023, when bags of cinnamon and baby fruits contaminated with lead The puree poisoned dozens of children in the US.
A lot is at stake for California families
Erin Yancovich of San Diego had been feeding her 1-year-old daughter, Noelie WanaBana, apple cinnamon pouches purchased at a local Dollar Tree for six months when she learned the products had been recalled. The bags contained a concentration of lead 200 times greater than the action level proposed by the Food and Drug Administration.
A test at the pediatrician's office revealed that Noelie had lead poisoning, with more than three times more lead than the level considered concerning by the CDC. No safe level of lead has been identified in children, and “even low levels of blood lead have been shown to reduce children's IQ, attention span, and academic performance,” according to the Centers for US Disease Control and Prevention
Noelie has a speech delay that requires therapy three days a week, which her mother attributes to lead poisoning from the bags. She is part of a class-action lawsuit seeking damages from WanaBana.
When told about the California law, Yancovich said it was a “great idea” that he hopes can help prevent companies from selling contaminated bags. “Normally I wouldn't be a person who would be under government supervision of every little thing in my life, but it's pathetic that we can't protect our babies and children,” she said.
Ron Simon, a Houston food safety attorney who represents Yancovich, worries that the law contains too many loopholes by leaving out importers and distributors.
“I'm concerned that this hasn't gone far enough,” he said. Many products sold in the United States (including WanaBana) are made by foreign companies, and the law could allow U.S.-based distributors to avoid liability, Simon said.
It is unclear how consumer-friendly the new requirements will be. To access the data, buyers will need to scan the QR code and then enter the 12-digit barcode number, along with a separate lot number. They will be directed to a web page with the results of the concentration tests for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium in the product.
Then they must figure out exactly what those scores mean and consider how the numbers might compare to other products, not to mention fresh foods they might find in the produce aisle.
“If you're at the grocery store and you have a kid in the cart, and you're trying to go down the aisles and check out, what's the feasibility of that working?” said Jaclyn Bowen, executive director of the Clean Label Project, an organization that certifies baby foods as having low levels of toxins.
“I think it's a very good idea to give families the information they need to make safer decisions for their children,” said Dr. Tanya Altmann, a Calabasas pediatrician and author of the book “What to feed your baby.” She says the law is likely to “raise the bar in terms of the quality of the food we feed our babies, infants and young children.”
The problem, he said, is that heavy metals occur naturally in the Earth's crust and traces can be found in all foods, including those found in the produce aisle rather than in a package. Buying organic produce or making baby food at home, Altmann added, does not mitigate the risk.
“Parents will be scared and panic when all this data comes to light, because any product containing fruits and vegetables is unlikely to have zero levels of heavy metals,” he said.
However, fruits and vegetables are crucial to a healthy diet.
“We want to make sure that parents are not refusing to give their baby the food they need based on this,” said Dr. Steven Abrams, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Austin Dell Medical School.
Abrams said studies should be conducted that look at how the law affects consumer behavior. “It is not desirable for people to opt for fast food,” which is not required to be tested for heavy metals.
Dr. Colleen Kraft, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, said that while the law is a real opportunity to keep California children safe, there is no need for parents to panic.
“Let's not go overboard and worry too much about it. We will be exposed to many things. If you are concerned about lead, talk to your pediatrician and have your child tested,” Kraft recommended.
Law that promotes changes in the baby food industry
Bowen, of the Clean Label Project, says the requirement is already having an impact on manufacturers and putting pressure on the rest of the supply chain. It has been working with baby food manufacturers to prepare for the law's implementation, helping them test every ingredient and final product and creating websites to provide easy consumer access to the results.
Serenity Kids, a baby food maker with products in 20,000 stores including Sprouts, Albertsons and Whole Foods, had already achieved Clean Label certification when the California law was passed. Still, CEO and co-founder Serenity Carr said the new requirements have led them to further reduce their heavy metal concentrations.
Serenity Kids now requires puree suppliers, including farmers, to pre-test their products for heavy metals and provide certificates of analysis before the company purchases them, and has removed suppliers who were unwilling to fulfill. The company then performs a test on each batch of its 35 final products each month to ensure that no additional contaminants have been introduced during the manufacturing process.
Carr said all that testing gets expensive and it was difficult to find a spice supplier willing to pre-test. But the process has led them to change certain high-risk ingredients, such as a particular type of fungus, producing an even safer baby food for consumers.
“The baby food industry has been waiting for guidance from the FDA for years. I have requested them myself. That's why it feels good that California has taken the first step toward a set of requirements to keep babies healthy,” Carr said.
This article is part of the Times' early childhood education initiative, which focuses on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. To learn more about the initiative and its philanthropic sponsors, visit latimes.com/earlyed.
