Neurosurgeon with Stanford PhD in Developmental Neurobiology creates & sells baby food product with “anti-cancer” messaging that tests positive for an unsafe level of a known carcinogen
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!
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Published: June 22, 2024
Saturday
The propaganda is so thick with this one that it hurt my soul when I first read it all. After all of the greenwashing uncovered with Serenity Kids’ products, one might think it would be difficult to be surprised by the depths to which a company might dare plunge in greenwashing their product. As of the moment of publishing this article (with the full laboratory test report for metals for the product shown above — the cerebelly smart bars in sweet potato blueberry banana flavor), this level of hypocrisy in marketing hype and greenwashing is the worst I have seen for any baby food product so far — specifically because it touts a “science-based” nature. I think we actually need to come up with a new term for this one… let’s call it “medical greenwashing” — for which I am hereby proposing the following definition: Using a company founder’s medical background to impart false or misleading import to the health-based claims made about a product (most often a food or personal care product).
For safer snack choices, click here.
A quick narrative summary of key points in evidence (for those not familiar with this brand):
- A practicing neurosurgeon — with a second degree (from Stanford) in Developmental Neurobiology — has created a baby food with aggressively-specific branding as being science-based, with the intention (both explicitly stated, and implied) that this product is optimal for brain health in our youngest babies, possibly to the degree that it could prevent cancer — a focus she has emphasized given her interest in combatting pediatric cancer.
- With testing conducted by the Lead Safe Mama community, this baby food product ironically (tragically) has tested positive for an unsafe level of a known carcinogen (i.e. a substance that causes cancer — Cadmium) with the level found being more than 400% of the action level (the level at which “action should be taken to address the concern because that level is unsafe for children,” as set forth by the medical and scientific community in the standards proposed for the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021).
- The level of Cadmium (and Arsenic) found in this baby food product is not illegal — as these proposed standards were never adopted/ the law never passed. Unfortunately, given what we have seen at this point (regarding prior troubling discoveries concerning the “Clean Label Project” program), I was also not surprised to learn that this brand (like Serenity Kids) is also a “Clean Label Purity Award” recipient. (!) <heavy sigh>
How Lead Safe Mama, LLC came to test the “cerebelly smart bars” product…
This product was our first “crowdfunded laboratory food testing project”; several members of our Facebook Group (Lead Poisoning Prevention with Lead Safe Mama) had submitted this suggestion and pooled their resources to help cover the cost of conducting truly independent third-party laboratory testing on this specific product (pictured in the graphic at the top of the page). Prior to the group nominating this product for testing, we were not aware of the product (nor of the, shall we say, “rather bold” claims made by the company). In fact, it was not until we were doing research in support of this article (after we received the alarming test results back from the lab) that we became aware of the outrageous narrative that accompanies this brand — outrageous, specifically in the context of the levels of Cadmium and Arsenic detected in the laboratory testing we coordinated.
While I am fairly certain the manufacturer of this product will likely respond to these findings (if history with such matters is any guide, likely with deflection and attempts at dismissing/ excusing the levels of toxicants found, and possibly even with a letter from their legal team sent to Lead Safe Mama, LLC demanding a “retraction” of our replicable/ science-based/ factual statements), we implore them not to take the predictable approach after learning of the concerning levels of Arsenic and Cadmium in their baby food products. In their public statements — that you can see below if you scroll down — the company has made a clear public declaration that “if they learn of unsafe levels of heavy metal in a batch of their product, the entire product batch will be thrown out” (which, in this case, would require a public recall — since the products from this batch have already been sold and are in the homes of consumers… and being fed to babies and toddlers). That would be a best-scenario (preliminary) outcome of this testing!
In the meantime, based on the science supporting the proposed Action Levels for Cadmium and Arsenic — proposed back in 2021 — we here at Lead Safe Mama, LLC want to make it clear that (in the absence of further independent testing in the future that confirms changes have been made and this brand is safe) we do not consider these products safe for children to eat, and we especially do not consider them safe for babies and toddlers to eat.
While we could go on dissecting this company’s misleading public narrative (the narrative that aims to convince families to buy their products for their precious children), we don’t think it is necessary to do that at this time. If you simply take a look at our lab report for this product (directly below), and then scroll down to read the narratives from their website, the juxtaposition of these two items say more than any critical narrative could add.
Lab test results — here is our lab test report for this product:
Relevant screenshots from the cerebelly website:
Screenshots — captured on June 22, 2024
When you click the “Our Standards”/ Learn button above you get this (phenomenally-greenwashed) narrative:
And then there’s the “founder’s story”
In addition to the above narrative (that appears to be riddled with falsehoods — whether or not these falsehoods are intentional), given the levels of Arsenic and Cadmium we found in the sample of their product that we had tested with independent laboratory analysis, we have this thoroughly-misleading “Our Story” narrative solidly designed to make customers believe/ not question every single word on the cerebelly website…
Batch info for the sample of this product that we tested:
Some additional reading that may be of interest:
- Our landing page with links to all of the food test results for products we have tested
- Lead Safe Mama, LLC’s initial batch of food testing (March 2024), including Serenity Kids Puffs, Siete Cassava Chips, Lesser Evil Puffs, and Happy Baby Puffs products
- Lesser Evil’s response to our testing
- Serenity Kids’ response to our testing
- Test results for Bob’s Red Mill Cassava Flour
- Test results for Otto’s Naturals Cassava Flour
- Test results for Quay Naturals Cassava Flour
- Test results for Terrasoul Superfoods Organic Cassava Flour
- Initial email exchange with Terrasoul Superfoods about their Cassava Flour
- Follow-up email to Terrasoul Superfoods regarding the (questionable) “COA” they share with customers
- How to send your own food samples into a lab for testing (the cost is $195 per single food sample tested for Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, and Arsenic)
- The Food category of articles here on Lead Safe Mama dot com
Amazon links are affiliate links. If you purchase something after clicking on a Lead Safe Mama, LLC Amazon affiliate link, Lead Safe Mama, LLC may receive a percentage of what you spend — at no extra cost to you.
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WTF??? This made me very angry. As I’ve said before, this is a criminal offense and should be prosecuted, especially because the victims are children. Is there any chance at all that the perpetrator was unaware of the contamination? I would think some testing would be required to assure safety prior to putting a product on the market. Can just anyone launch a substandard or, worse, dangerous ☠️product with absolutely no consumer protection protocols in place? This undermines my confidence in the safety of our food system to a far greater degree than before. Thank you, Tamara Rubin, for bringing this disgraceful situation to our attention and for consistently fulfilling your mission of protecting children from the devastation caused by exposure to lead and other toxicants.
i cannot thank you enough, for the work you do @leadsafemama.
THANK YOU FOR THE ARDUOUS WORK & CRITICISM YOU ENDURE; us consumers are forever grateful to you and your services.
Given their statements and backstory, I really hope this company does the right thing, owns up to their mistake, does a recall and explains to us how this happened given all the testing they supposedly do. With everything they have written, they better not give you the kind of response you’ve received from Serendity Kids and others…
Tamara,
You are amazing and extraordinary and you leave me speechless! You are doing what our government (which should be protecting us and, most especially, the most vulnerable among us) is not doing!
Absolutely disgraceful, but reinforces my belief that parents should not be giving their kids any processed foods at all (i.e. ‘bars’, ‘puffs’, etc) because it’s just too likely they are contaminated with something bad.
Parents should do this. Parents should do that. Can we please stop with the parent shaming. *Companies* should sell items that are safe to consume. The FDA should enforce that companies sell items that are safe to consume. My kids like many others kids have food aversions. I wish they would eat whole food but it doesn’t work like that. Reading these types of comments about what parents should do is exhausting.
Signed a mom on her way back from feeding therapy…
Amen! Some parents work full time. Sometimes, we are out and about with a finnicky toddler (for better or worse, mine moved on from this product). How do we know homemade foods don’t contain similar or worse toxins?
Homemade foods have nowhere near the toxicant levels (heavy metal levels) that processed manufactured foods have.
T
Tamara please watch your back!! Thank you for everything you do – but we need you – be safe!!
Maybe we need to crowd-source some personal security for you. I am certain we could!
Just wow. Cerebelly also claims they independently test every batch, every time. Do you still have the lot# for the product you tested? I’m curious if they would disclose what their results were for that same batch and I want to reach out to them too. This is ridiculous and appalling. Thank you, Tamara, for all you do. Very grateful for you!
Cerebelly has done a recall on this specific bar in the past, but it was due to mold. So hopefully they do the right thing going forward and recall and change this recipe. It’s one of the few baby foods that isn’t owned by large corporations.
They appear to be doubling down. It seems unlikely they will do a recall.
Read this:
https://tamararubin.com/2024/06/why-are-clean-label-project-purity-award-winning-products-testing-positive-for-lead-cadmium-mercury-arsenic/
And this:
https://tamararubin.com/2024/06/cerebellys-response-to-customers-june-24-2024-monday/
Thank you so much for doing this. We’ve been feeding Cerebelly products nearly every day for the past 3 years to our babies/toddlers. The company narrative on their rigorous testing for heavy metals and the medical background all made it sound like the most reliable source we could trust to be free of heavy metals (and the clean label purity award, which we now know doesn’t mean that thank to you). I’m sick right now with worry about whether any of their products were possibly injuring our babies. Please test all of their flavored purée pouches! I can’t believe this and can’t believe how much money we spent simply trying to find an option that was safe and free of heavy metals based on their story of rigorous testing.
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment here!
T
I’m grateful for the work you do. I’m angry that I was bamboozled by the advertising and purchased their products for a grandchild. Our entire food supply is a field of land mines.
This makes me so sad. I’ve been giving my baby/toddler cerebelly bars for awhile. He had to get tested for lead because he had higher levels. Which is terrifying as a mom and the testing process for a 14mo old is not fun. Thank you for testing these foods for our children and for mommies!
I will pay for you to test Peter Rabbit strawberry banana pouches. My son loves them so much.
Have you tested the Cerebelly Pouches?
no – Here’s a lit of everything we have tested and everything we are planning on testing: https://tamararubin.com/2024/06/food-testing-fundraising-campaigns-update-june-21-2024-batch-3-of-lead-safe-mama-llc-food-testing/
Thank you for the work you do! Please let me know where I can find information on baby food I should be feeding my son. I am so concerned that even SALT that I have in my own home has a high level of lead (Celtic). So disappointed.