Hi Kathleen, this is Jaclyn Bowen of Clean Label Project. Great point, there are multiple sources of contamination to consider when looking at the infant formula and baby food ingredient supply chain. However, one statistic I found really interesting. 36% of infant formulas and baby foods tested positive for at least trace levels of lead. This means that 64% of infant formulas and baby foods didn’t. In other words, these 64% of brands are either 1) inherently formulating with low-lead risk ingredients or 2) they have identified sources of ingredients from cleaner soils. I recently spoke at the American Public Health Association conference and was fortunate to be on a panel with a researcher and physician from the Dartmouth Toxic Metals Research Program. When looking at arsenic in rice, the cleanest geographical source of rice (on average) is India, the southeast US has (on average) higher arsenic levels. Why? What was once cotton fields have been transitioned over to rice and the soils are still dealing with the breakdown components of the pesticides used in cotton production. At Clean Label Project, knowing more details about the soil sources of ingredients is important, especially with food destined to be marketed to infants and children.

Hi Jennifer, this is Jaclyn Bowen of Clean Label Project. You can check out more details of the study at CleanLabelProject.org. The specific baby food brands tested include 365 Everyday Value, Abbott, Amara, Babie’s “R” Us, Baby Mum-Mum, Baby’s Only, Bambino’s, Beech-Nut, Comforts for Baby, Comforts for Toddler, Doctor Rachs, Earth’s Best, Ella’s Kitchen, Enfagrow, Enfamil, Gerber, Happy Baby, Happy Tot, Healthy Times, Holle, Kabrita, Kiddylicious, Kidfresh, Kirkland, Little Duck Organics, Member’s Mark, Mom to Mom, Nestle, Nosh!, Nursery, NurturMe, Nutramigen, Nutricia Neocate, O Organics, Orgain, Organix, OrgaNums, Parent’s Choice, Peaceful Planet, Pedialyte, PediaSmart!, PediaSure, PediaVance, Plum Organics, Pregestimil, Pumpkin Tree, Pure Spoon, Similac, Simple Truth Organic, Smuckers, Sprout, Sweetie Pie Organics, The Honest Co., Up & Up, Vermont Organics, Yummy Spoonfuls.