For those new to the Lead Safe Mama website:
Tamara Rubin is a multiple-federal-award-winning independent advocate for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety, and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children (two of her four sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005).
- Tamara owns and runs Lead Safe Mama, LLC — a unique community collaborative woman-owned small business for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety.
- Since July of 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for five product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
- All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable.
- Please check out our press page to see some of the amazing coverage of our work so far this year!
Affiliate link to the test kit Lead Safe Mama, LLC uses for the laboratory food test results we publish: https://amzn.to/3UIPcHP
This is an ad-free page.
Advertising and affiliate income help Lead Safe Mama, LLC cover the costs of the work we do here (independent consumer goods testing and childhood Lead-poisoning prevention advocacy). We have removed ads from most of our more widely-read articles & pages (like this one!) to make them easier for you to read. In addition to supporting this work by starting any shopping you might be doing with a click on our affiliate links, if you would like to support the independent consumer goods testing and childhood Lead-poisoning prevention advocacy work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC by making a contribution (which will also help us keep our more widely-read articles ad-free), click here. Thank you!
Each image below is a link to an article related to the food testing Lead Safe Mama has conducted. Product-specific articles include the laboratory test reports for each product tested.
Pending Food Testing Results
& Food Testing Fundraising Campaigns
Updated August 2024
How to send your own food to a lab
&
How to nominate a food product for testing
NINE safer foods we have found so far
(using laboratory testing)
Batch #4 of Lead Safe Mama Food Testing: July/August 2024
We sent/ are sending a total of at least 64 products to the lab between July and August (most will be reported in August), so check back here for updates!
Batch #3 of Lead Safe Mama Food Testing: June/ July 2024
We sent 19 products to the lab in June and early July, check back here for updates!
Section #2) Batch #3 — June/ July 2024 Overview Article(s) Regarding Lead Safe Mama, LLC’s Completed Food Testing
Section #3) Batch #3 — Communications with Manufacturers
(& Lead Safe Mama’s Responses)
Batch #2 Food Testing
May 2024
Eight Products Tested
Section #1) Batch #2 — Specific Products and Related Laboratory Reports
Section #2) Batch #2 — Overview Article(s) Regarding These Products
Stand by for more information here!
Section #3) Batch #2 — Communications with Manufacturers
(& Lead Safe Mama’s Responses)
Batch #1 Food Testing
March 2024
Six Products Tested
Section #1) Batch #1— Specific Products and Related Laboratory Reports
Section #2) Batch #1— Overview Article Regarding These Products
Section #3) Batch #1 — Communications with Manufacturers
(& Lead Safe Mama’s Responses)
Thank you for putting these all together in one article! In the article photo, you have a picture of a box of Cascadian Farm Purely O’s. But I can’t seem to find a link for that test. Could you please share that? Thank you! All the work you do is greatly appreciated!
It will be published shortly
I had this same question
Thank you for your work. I had been curious about the Harvest Snaps. I eat the red lentil variety most often and wondered if you have plans to test that one.
Hello! Thank you for commenting! This is AJ (one of Tamara’s sons). I’m helping my mom answer questions.
If you’re interested in nominating a specific product for testing, you can visit this article: https://tamararubin.com/2024/05/how-to-test-food-yourself-via-a-lab-submission-for-lead-cadmium-arsenic-and-mercury/
Scroll down to the “How to sponsor Lead Safe Mama, LLC’s testing of a food product”
section for more information.
You can also email Testing@LeadSafeMama.com with “FOOD TESTING” in the subject line if you (alone or with a group of friends) are interested in sponsoring the testing of a particular food item.
Any safe brands of Cassava flour?
Have you found any baby puffs that are considered “safe” with your testing? I was so disappointed finding out about Serenity Kids because they’re one of the only brands that didn’t have seed oils in their products.
Also, do you have any plans to test organic flours? I tend to use Arrowhead Mills organic unbleached all purpose and/or bread flour for my baking and sourdough.
Thanks!
Thank you for all that you do! This cassava flour issue has me so bummed out, but I’m so grateful for the chance to learn through you. Question: is tapioca and arrowroot equally as problematic? If so, Simple Mills products, some of our fave GF options, may have to leave our pantry, too 🙁 …
Where do you list better alternatives?
Hi Jill – we have 44 food related articles, many have suggestions for better choices: https://tamararubin.com/category/food-water-salt-candy/
Hi Tamara! Thank you for all you do! Are the test results based on a serving size, or are they based on the entire package?
Thank you again for your valuable research!
Hi.
That’s not how parts per million or parts per billion works.
If you have any quantity of an item (a package, a serving size or a teaspoon) and divide that (theoretically) into 1,000,000 equal parts (or a 1,000,000,000 equal parts) – then the ppm (or ppb) is the number of parts of the whole that would be that toxicant (in theory). It’s best not to look at package size or serving size as considerations, but instead compare the ppb levels of the product to the levels of concern / action levels that have been proposed by the medical and scientific communities as being protective of children’s health.
The 2021 Baby Food Legislation that was proposed (but not passed due to political pushback) set the following action levels (as levels that would be protective of children’s health). “Action level” meaning the level at-or-above which the presence of this toxicant would be concerning in any food consumed by young children:
2 ppb Mercury
5 ppb Lead
5 ppb Cadmium
10 ppb Arsenic
This is discussed in detail in this article:
https://tamararubin.com/2024/03/lead-safe-mama-llc-tested-baby-foods-one-clean-label-project-purity-award-recipient-tested-positive-for-lead-mercury-cadmium-arsenic/
T
That is wonderfully informative (and terrifying) information. It’s such a shame that legislation didn’t pass…or they didn’t have to put Prop 65 labels on these foods… or publicly called out MadeSafe/Clean Label type organizations for their ‘oversight’, etc. I appreciate your advocacy and going to bat for all of us. Your work has been helping me make better decisions for my family. No one would know these things about the products you test if it weren’t for you. Thank you again
Thank you Serena!
T
Where can I find the Test results for the one degree oatmeal
Here. When they have been published.
Here’s the status page:
https://tamararubin.com/2024/06/food-testing-fundraising-campaigns-update-june-21-2024-batch-3-of-lead-safe-mama-llc-food-testing/
Tamara
Hi, where are the links for the active GoFundMe’s? I would like to donate and can’t find where they are. Thank you 🙂
Thank you. They are linked at the top of the website menu: https://tamararubin.com/website-menu/
I can not find where you posted a list of the foods you and your family eat right now…However, I recall you posted you eat nutritional yeast on your popcorn. You may want to have the brand or brands of nutritional yeast you use tested.
https://nutritionfacts.org/blog/three-brands-of-nutritional-yeast-contain-detectable-lead-levels-but-the-risk-is-minimal/
Hi!
Is there a list that includes ALL of the SAFE food products in 1 list?
It is becoming very overwhelming. I may not be searching properly either!
Thank you!
Susan
There are only two processed food items that we tested that were non-detect & they are linked above. Here’s another link that may be helpful:
https://tamararubin.com/2024/06/are-you-suffering-from-snack-paralysis-are-you-concerned-that-all-snacks-test-positive-for-lead-here-are-some-safer-snack-ideas-for-your-kids/
This might also be helpful:
https://tamararubin.com/2023/03/my-favorite-organic-coffee-some-of-my-thoughts-related-to-choosing-safer-lead-free-foods/
And this too:
https://tamararubin.com/2017/03/which-foods-have-lower-lead-levels-tamaras-food-list-including-foods-we-try-to-avoid-at-all-cost/
All of these links can be found on the website menu. Section 14 is the food section of the menu (scroll down):
https://tamararubin.com/website-menu/
Good morning,
Thank you for your work. Is there an overall spreadsheet that could be downloaded that has all of the products that were tested and the results? I could only find separate test results and would find helpful to be able to glance through a whole file.
Thank you!
Ana
There is a preliminary spreadsheet here: https://tamararubin.com/2024/06/food-testing-fundraising-campaigns-update-all-batches-of-lead-safe-mama-llc-food-testing-2024/