By Brian Ronholm of Consumer Reports, Tom Neltner of Unleaded Kids, and Mariah Walters Orose of Unleaded Kids
What Happened
As we have noted previously, since January 1, companies making or selling baby food in California are required by state law to disclose on their website test results for arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury in their products. In February, the California Department of Public Health clarified that dietary supplements are covered by the law.
Because of concerns over the potential lack of awareness of this law by baby food supplement companies, Unleaded Kids and Consumer Reports – as part of its baby food project – examined whether they were complying with the law.
After contacting 20 brands that appeared to be selling products to babies and toddlers, we found that three — and by the end of the year a fourth — were disclosing test results. Six others did not appear to be complying. The others said their products were not intended for children younger than two years and, therefore, not covered by the law.
What We Found
Baby food supplement brands disclosing test results:
- Mary Ruth Organics: Results posted on more than 350 lots of more than 40 products. Formatting issues make it difficult to access the information. The highest lead level is 33 ppb in a probiotic.
- Litte Remedies: Results posted for 17 lots of two products. The highest lead level is 5.7 ppb for honey cough syrup.
- ChildLife Essentials: Results posted for 36 lots of 15 products. The highest lead level is 14 ppb in a liquid calcium with magnesium product.
- Culturelle: They informed us that they would have the information posted in 3 months.
Brands that appear to be selling baby food supplements but are not disclosing the test results:
- Enfagrow by Enfamil: Waiting for a response to multiple inquiries.
- Hiya Health: Website describes heavy metal testing but only provides one May 2024 lab report for its products and the lab method does not appear to comply with the law. Initially responded to our inquiry but has not for multiple follow-ups.
- Green Peach: Claims it does not market baby food and that it does all the testing but does not publish on their website. However, they have a webpage and seven products specifically for babies.
- Kate Farms: Claims it does not sell or market baby food even though its webpagesays “Kate Farms pediatric products provide both micronutrients and macronutrients in amounts which support kiddos ages 1-13.”
- NovaFerrum/Gensavis: Claims it is not subject to testing and disclosure requirements in California law even though it markets several products for infants. They further claim they are “among the few brands in our category that meet the highest standards for transparency and safety” because it has received the Clean Label Project Purity Award. However, this award is not related to transparency.
- Zarbee’s: Initially responded to our inquiry but has not for multiple follow-ups.
Why it Matters
While dietary supplements are considered food, FDA’s authority to regulate them is very limited. Outside of prenatal multivitamins, little is known about potential arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury contamination.
As Unleaded Kids explained in an April blog, a study of more than 150 prenatal multivitamin products showed widely varying lead levels as high as 900 ppb, with an average of 79 ppb with 15% less than 10 ppb. This variation indicates that there are significant opportunities to further FDA’s goal on driving dietary exposure closer to zero. For that reason, California’s legislature passed a bill in September that would require testing and disclosure for these products.
Since baby food supplements were covered by AB-899, there is an opportunity to get a better understanding of the toxic element levels in these products.
Our Take
We applaud the three brands that make the arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury test results publicly available on their website. We encourage Culturelle to move quickly to join the three and have asked Mary Ruth Organics to fix the formatting so the test results can be more easily viewed.
We also encourage consumers to choose the brands that are being transparent and demand more from those that are not.