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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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An affiliate link to the test kit Lead Safe Mama, LLC uses for the laboratory food test results we publish: https://amzn.to/3UIPcHP

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This is an ad-free article.

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 (and newly published articles, too — 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!

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Important Background: What is an Action Level?

Please note the following key points.

The original/ full laboratory report for this product is below (at the bottom of this page).

The graphic above shows the levels of metals detected in this product (in red) along with the low threshold of detection (in green) for each of the metals not detected with the laboratory testing that Lead Safe Mama, LLC had completed for this product. The numbers are juxtaposed to (in blue) the “Action Level” proposed by the medical and scientific community in 2021 as part of the Baby Food Safety Act.

• These levels were set as “Action Levels” that are (in fact) protective of human health.
• An “Action Level” is NOT the same as a “Maximum Allowable Level.”
• Once the level of a heavy metal in food reaches the “Action Level,” that metal is officially over any safe threshold and into the realm of heavy metal levels that can cause lasting harm to children.
• The “Action Level” is the level at which the scientific and medical community believes the company (or government) needs to take ACTION to fix the problem (which also includes taking ACTION to inform the public that the product has an unsafe level of the metal detected at-or-above the “Action Level” — and which relevant batch numbers should be recalled/ not consumed).
• These Action Levels are not arbitrary, however they were not passed into law.
• These Action Levels reflect the current advice of the medical and scientific communities as levels both achievable and also protective of infant and toddler health — regardless of the fact it is not illegal to have food for children test positive at these levels (as the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021 never passed into law).
• The legitimacy of these levels as “Action Levels”/ “Levels of Concern” (even though they were not adopted as law) is similar to the legitimacy of the America Academy of Pediatrics’ level of concern for Lead in water — which is 1 ppb — even though the FDA’s official “level of concern” for Lead in water is 15 ppb (you can read more about that here).

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For safer food choices, click here.

If you are new here, please check out our website menu (link) to see all the other types of items we have tested and reported on! Welcome to our site!

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Published:
July 19, 2024 — Thursday

I am publishing these test results today without much of an explanation, just so people have access to this information immediately. The full lab report for this product is below (at the bottom of the page) so please scroll down. As questions come up I will update the article. To briefly summarize the concern:

• These findings are outrageous.
• The fact that this is a WIC-approved food that nearly every child in our country has eaten is outrageous.
• The fact that this type of food is not more closely regulated by any federal agency is outrageous.
• We are comparing these levels to the 2021 Proposed Action Levels for foods that are “not cereal” — because (as we have detailed in posts for similar products) this food is given to the youngest children as a finger food (not as a cereal) and should be regulated as “not a cereal” because it is understood to be served to babies without milk (including via statements on the Cheerios website — see the three screenshots below).
• We need to do better for our babies.
• We need to do better for our young families.
• This is unacceptable.
• Cadmium is a known carcinogen.
• The proposed “Action Level” for Cadmium was set at 5 ppb. These Cheerios tested positive for more than three times the level of Cadmium that is considered unsafe (15 ppb Cadmium).
• When we (societally) search for sources of the epidemic of cancer in our country, maybe we should start this inquiry by looking at America’s most popular breakfast cereals.

Signed,

Tamara Rubin
A former WIC mom (2x over)

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Other breakfast foods we have tested using laboratory testing:

• LoveBird Grain Free Cereal was positive for an unsafe level of Lead — here’s a link to lab report.
• Purely O’s (Cascadian Farms/ General Mills) also tested positive for an unsafe level of Cadmium. Here’s the lab report.
• Fruitful O’s (Cascadian Farms/ General Mills) was positive for an unsafe level of Lead — read the lab report linked here.
• Seven Sundays Sunflower Cereal tested Positive for an unsafe level of both Lead and Cadmium. Read the lab report here.
• Birch Benders Paleo Pancake Mix was positive for an unsafe level of Lead and Cadmium as well. See the lab report here.

For a safer breakfast option (that tested non-detect for the four heavy metals we are testing for), check out this product (on sale today at 28% off): https://amzn.to/4d5iQib.
The lab report for this safer choice is linked here.

You may also want to make pancakes with this product (which was also non-detect for the four heavy metals we are testing for): https://amzn.to/3WdGthz.
And the lab report for this safer choice, linked here.

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The greenwashing engaged in by this company:

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Some additional reading & links that may be of interest:

1. A link with a spreadsheet showing all of our food testing — completed and in-progress (since we started testing food in March of 2024).
2. The Lead Safe Mama affiliate link to purchase the same test kits we use for this testing.
3. Check out our landing page with links to all our results for the food products we have tested.
4. Here’s 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) or how to collaborate with Lead Safe Mama, LLC on the food testing we’re hosting.
5. And this is the Food category of articles here on Lead Safe Mama dot com.

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Amazon links are affiliate links. If you purchase something after clicking a Lead Safe Mama, LLC Amazon affiliate link, we may receive a percentage of what you spend at no extra cost to you.

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