Baby food labels will reveal levels of lead and other heavy metals for first time

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Lead and other toxic heavy metals have been found in dangerously elevated amounts in some commercial baby foods sold in the United States, yet parents have had no way to know if the baby foods they purchase contain those higher levels.

Enter a California law that requires baby food manufacturers to use an accredited lab to test representative samples of any infant and toddler food (excluding infant formula) at least once a month for levels of arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury.

As of January 1, baby food manufacturers must provide those test results to the public on their websites. Anyone can access those results by scanning a QR code on the baby food label with their smartphones.

The new law applies only to sales of baby food in California, but major manufacturers —including market leaders Gerber and Beech-Nut — tell CNN they are rolling out QR codes on baby and toddler foods nationwide.

“This is a transparency law, and in the court of public opinion, transparency is where you breed accountability,” said Jaclyn Bowen, executive director of the Clean Label Project, a nonprofit dedicated to transparent food labeling.

“With all this information going public, we’re going to force the conversation — what are we feeding America’s children? Let’s make sure that we’re talking about nutrient-dense healthy baby foods that come from good healthy soils created by good environmental policy,” Bowen said.

History of heavy metals in baby food

Over the last decade, investigations by consumer advocacy groups and a congressional subcommittee have discovered alarming levels of heavy metals in supermarket baby foods.

According to a 2021 congressional investigation, internal documents from major manufacturers revealed some baby food samples contained up to 177 times the lead level, 91 times the inorganic arsenic level, and 69 times the cadmium level allowed in bottled water by federal agencies.

These heavy metals have been linked to cancer, chronic disease and neurotoxic effects, but it’s the damage that can be done to a developing child’s brain that makes baby food toxicity so devastating.

The combined investigations led to the introduction of the Baby Food Safety Act of 2024, which is still stuck in committee. In October 2023, however, California acted on its own.

“The AB 899 California bill requires manufacturers to test the final baby food product to a level of six parts per billion for each heavy metal, and if the result is over that, manufacturers must specify that number,” said Nick Mares, cofounder of Light Labs, a certified laboratory providing testing for baby food manufacturers.

One part per billion would be equal to adding a single drop of water to a 10,000-gallon swimming pool. However, no level of lead is safe for infants and toddlers, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The US Food and Drug Administration has proposed setting lead levels in baby food of 10 parts per billion for many products and 20 parts per billion for cereals and root vegetables, which can absorb the highest levels. The agency has previously set levels of 100 parts per billion for arsenic in baby rice cereal, a level critics call too high. However, the FDA hasn’t taken action on other heavy metals.

“Of course, any nonzero number is going to be scary to parents, but these heavy metals are in the Earth’s crust and cannot be eliminated entirely, even in foods we make at home,” Mares said.

However, experts said manufacturers can greatly reduce levels of toxic metals by carefully choosing their suppliers, such as opting for farmers who grow foods in less-polluted soils and use regenerative farming techniques. No-till farming, rotating crops and growing cover crops, for example, all help microbes in the soil bind with heavy metals, leaving fewer toxins for plants to absorb.

“Smart companies will have already been working hard to change where they source their ingredients and how they process their ingredients,” said Scott Farber, senior vice president for government affairs for the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit advocacy group aiming to reform chemical safety and agricultural laws.

“In all likelihood, these marketplace changes will do more to drive down the levels of toxic metals than anything the FDA might ultimately do,” Farber said.

Expect some delays in implementation

The new California law applies to all baby foods manufactured on or after January 1, 2025, but consumers should be aware existing products that do not meet the new guidelines do not have to be removed from retail shelves. Products with the new QR codes may trickle in during the early part of 2025 as companies adjust their production schedules.

Gerber, which is owned by Nestlé SA, told CNN the first round of products that display the results of heavy metal testing won’t be available until mid-January.

“All testing results can be found by scanning the QR code on the product label or by visiting Gerber.com,” said Chandra Kumar, president of Nestlé Nutrition North America, in an email. “Consumers can then search for their product either by typing in the batch number or searching by product name.”

Kumar said Gerber has regularly tested for more than 500 toxins and contaminants for decades and implements more than 100 individual quality checks before a baby food is sold. “We test crops, water, ingredients and our final products to ensure we deliver on our promise to make high quality, safe baby food,” Kumar said.

Beech-Nut has also tested raw ingredients in baby food purees for 30 years and in 2022 began testing the final products sold to consumers, according to Jason Jacobs, vice president of quality and technical services at Beech-Nut.

“In addition to testing for heavy metals, we also screen for up to 255 pesticides, toxins, and other environmental elements,” Jacobs said in an email. “Before raw ingredients are shipped to us, we require our farming partners to undergo a rigorous testing and documentation process before we accept them as producers.”

However, since the FDA has not established upper limits for most heavy metals, some smaller, more niche baby food companies have already carved out a market by meeting the much lower standards for heavy metals that the European Union requires.

“The benefit of being so small is that we can change things really fast,” said Serenity Carr, cofounder and CEO of Serenity Kids, a baby food company based in Austin, Texas.

“For example, a few years ago, we got a lead hit on some mushroom powder we had bought that we were not expecting to have lead in it, so we changed our mushroom source and our mushroom type,” Carr said. “Our program is actually even more strict than the EU because we have had success over the last five years by working those numbers down.”

Check the nutritional label

Scanning a QR code and then typing a batch number or searching by product name could make it difficult for busy caregivers to choose the baby food with lowest levels while shopping, critics say.

However, it’s possible to create future platforms where consumers will be taken directly to that product’s testing results, said Kait Stephens, founder and CEO of Brij, a retail intelligence platform that helps brands connect their offline and online channels.

“Brands are still getting their arms around this regulation, which is still evolving, but we’ve designed our solution with the flexibility to adapt as the regulatory landscape evolves,” Stephens said.

There are other concerns about the implementation of the new law, Farber said. Some baby food companies, such as those who only sell online, may choose not to comply with the California regulations, so experts say parents and caregivers should be careful consumers.

“It will be interesting to see which companies don’t comply,” Farber said. “I expect some may choose not to disclose.”

Parents and caregivers should also be aware of another possible outcome — unscrupulous manufacturers that choose to cut nutritional corners to comply with the new regulations.

“The easiest way to lower the amount of heavy metals in a food is to water it down,” Bowen said. “If water is the first ingredient on that baby food’s ingredient list, beware. Water doesn’t have calories, and you want your child to be satiated with protein, healthy fats and nutrients from a variety of healthy fruits and vegetables. So reading that nutrition label will be key.”

As the new law rolls out, it’s possible to see even bigger reductions in heavy metals and other contaminants as companies battle for consumer loyalty, experts say.

“On January 1, it’s going to be a bit like the price is right or maybe the price is wrong as each company has to disclose its numbers,” Farber said. “One baby food company will have the highest levels, and another will have the lowest levels. And that, I believe, will drive further reformulation.”

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