If you’ve been following our lead poisoning series, you know now that up to 95% of children’s foods are considered contaminated with heavy metals at a level unsafe for their healthy development.
Although there are efforts to pass the Baby Food Safety Act (BFSA) of 2024 (formerly 2021), it still hasn’t been legalized yet — even though current scientists and pediatric medical specialists assert the BFSA is the best measurement to protect children’s health.
It’s frightening that it’s legal to sell foods that can literally poison our children. In 2023, popular children’s applesauce pouches were recalled for poisoning children with lead and causing a host of adverse health and mental concerns. Children’s foods and toys are constantly getting recalled and reported for unsafe levels of lead that isn’t caught until after they’re sold.
Even highly-awarded, organic, no-GMO, Clean Label Purity Award children’s foods can contain a dangerous level of lead!
So if we want to reduce our children’s lead exposure in their nutrition, how can we move forward to feed them lead-free food?
Processed foods or snacks that are verified lead-free
Lead Safe Mama LLC, a business credited by Consumer Reports as responsible for multiple recalls of lead-contaminated products, is the only company I’ve found that tests processed foods at the BFSA level with XRF testing and the instrumentation that the U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commision uses.
With the caveat that the foods tested often only come from one particular batch (although all foods that are tested as safe in accordance with the BFSA are tested by Lead Safe Mama periodically to make sure they stay safe), here is a list of kid friendly processed foods that have tested with lead levels at or below the BFSA guidelines of 5 parts per million:
- Nature’s Path Envirokidz Organic Panda Puffs.
- One Degree Organic, Gluten-Free, Sprouted Rolled Oats (Canada).
- GoGo Squeez Organic Apple Sauce Pouch.
- Pure Organic Layered Fruit Bars in Strawberry Banana Flavor.
- Pure Organic Layered Fruit Bars in Raspberry Lemonade Flavor.
- That’s It Apple Cherry Bars (Not Organic)
- Once Upon a Farm Dairy-free smoothie pouch in strawberry banana.
- Once Upon a Farm puffs (note: tested by Consumer Reports).
- Once Upon a Farm tractor wheels are lead free. However, they have the maximum allowable limit of Cadmium (5ppb).
Infant Formulas that have tested safe:
- ByHeart Infant Formula (USA-Made, not organic).
- Holle Bio Goat Stage 2 Infant Formula (for 6-10 months, organic, European — Swiss/ German/ Austrian): Not available on Amazon, but the Stage 3 version of this product is (not yet tested, but will likely test similarly).
- Kendamil Organic Follow-On Milk (European/ British Toddler Formula, for 6-12 months).
- Kendamil Organic Infant Formula (Cow Milk).
Foods to consider avoiding in processed products (see processed vs homemade comparison below)
- Cassava. Many foods containing cassava flour test high in lead. Lead accumulates in its root system, so any root vegetable is more likely to be contaminated. In large manufacturing plants, it also is not likely to be reliably scrubbed free of all dirt, which may leave lead-remaining dirt particles on it. And cassava flour can have more concentrated lead than fresh cassava due to the processing.
- Root vegetables in general — sweet potatoes, beets and carrots — due to similar reasons as cassava.
- Spinach is high in calcium. If grown in lead-contaminated soil, lead bio-mimics calcium in its structure, and this can lead to unsafe levels of lead.
- Sunflower seeds and seed butter. These have the same issues as spinach. (Actually, if you know you have lead-contaminated soil in your yard, apparently sunflowers have been shown to be efficacious at removing lead from the soil!)
- Chocolate. Most chocolate is considered at high risk of lead contamination. An exception so far is Lindt’s white chocolate bars, which have tested free of all heavy metals!
- Cinnamon. Cinnamon is a spice that consistently tests high for lead, and imported cinnamon is at an even higher risk of being contaminated.
Why can I more safely eat cassava at home, but not in a factory-processed food?
Any food you make at home will be safer than any processed food you buy, even if all the ingredients are the same.
That’s because “soil contamination” — the idea that foods are contaminated by lead via the soil they’re grown in — is only one part of the story.
Processing equipment often contains metal components made with heavy metals, such as lead and arsenic. (The lubricity of leaded brass makes it a popular part, but unfortunately also a dangerous one.) As the part wears, the metals wearing off end up in the food going through the machine.
“Lead paint is illegal now” — but only in homes. Many of food processing machines still use lead or cadmium-based paints. That paint, as it wears down, also goes into the food.
Lastly, foods that are grown in lead-containing dirt and not properly washed can contaminate food. You can definitely wash foods more vigorously at home than foods that are washed in processing plants, which means the same ingredient (say, a sweet potato) can have less lead if you wash and make a puree at home than if you purchase a sweet potato pouch.
Lastly, some pesticides used on commercially grown produce still contain lead!
If you’re getting worried that every single snack is testing positive for lead — you’re not alone!
After my triplets’ lead poisoning diagnosis in 2024, I was so sad to discover that the “healthy, organic” baby snacks I’d been buying for them were filled with lead.
But there are options! I’ve listed products and brands that reliably test well in this article. And as you start researching, you can feel confident to begin making reasonable assumptions.
For example, before Lead Safe Mama LLC tested Once Upon a Farm’s tractor wheels, I did research on that product and decided for myself that I felt safe buying them for my kids, even without a test, because a) Once Upon a Farm had produced products that tested lead free (their puffs), and b) the ingredients in the tractor wheels were relatively safe. When the test was released, I was relieved and affirmed to see the test showed a lead-free product.
In contrast, GoGo Squeez’s plain applesauce pouches have tested safe of heavy metals, and that’s one of my kiddos’ go-to snacks. But I wouldn’t buy their cinnamon applesauce pouches, because cinnamon is a spice that is very susceptible to dangerous amounts of lead.
Lead Safe Mama’s business includes a “safer snacks” page that you can check out for more ideas.