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Quick summary:

1. Annie’s Macaroni & Classic Cheddar “Made With Organic Pasta” — tested positive for an unsafe level of Cadmium.
   • Please note the specifics and reasoning related to the levels considered unsafe below, in the “Action Level” section of this article.
2. Please do note that this testing was completed on the dry boxed product.
3. Given the instructions on the box call for adding butter and milk, the Cadmium levels should (theoretically) be lower on the final product when it is prepared for serving:
   • This would only be true if the ingredients added for preparation — the butter and milk — were free of Cadmium (or have a lower level of Cadmium than the dry, boxed product).
   • At this time (based on research to date) we have no reason to suspect that milk and butter might test positive for unsafe levels of Cadmium, however we do plan to do further research into this subject to further explore this consideration.

As Cadmium is a known carcinogen (and has been classified as a carcinogen for more than three decades), the American citizen’s reliance on wheat-flour products to feed their families is alarming — especially combined with the pervasiveness of Cadmium contamination in all U.S-produced wheat flour products (organic and conventional, prepared/ formed dry pasta products as well as plain, packaged flour products) that Lead Safe Mama, LLC has tested so far through our 2024 laboratory food testing initiative. This is made more disturbing in light of the recent August 2024 study demonstrating an increase in 17 specific types of cancer in younger generations (link with more info here).

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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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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 lab 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 metal not detected with the laboratory testing Lead Safe Mama, LLC completed for this product. The numbers are juxtaposed (in blue) to the “Action Level” proposed by the medical and scientific community in 2021 as part of the Baby Food Safety Act.

• These 2021 levels were proposed as “Action Levels” because they are (in fact) protective of human health.
• An “Action Level” is NOT the same as a “Maximum Allowable Level.”
  • Many food manufacturers misinterpret guidance on heavy metals to mean “allowable levels” and consider it reasonable for their products to test positive below these levels.
  • This is a (perhaps intentional?) misunderstanding/ misinterpretation the food industry makes — a misunderstanding which food manufacturers use to justify the presence of heavy metals in their products.
• There is no safe level of Lead exposure.
• Lead bioaccumulates in the body.
  • Lead bio-mimics Calcium in all biological structures.
  • If Lead is present, the human body stores it in Calcium-dense biological structures (the brain, bones, organs, teeth, etc.) in the place of Calcium.
  • Nearly all the Lead you have been exposed to in your life is still stored in your body. You can learn more about this by watching our documentary film on childhood Lead poisoning — linked here.
  • It is the cumulative impact of heavy metal exposure (over a lifetime) that makes even small/ incidental/ seemingly trivial exposures particularly damaging and dangerous. You can read more about that here.
• Once a food product has the amount of heavy metal (Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, or Arsenic) noted (above) as the “Action Level,” that food product is officially considered (by the scientific and medical community) unsafe for consumption by children as toxicants (found at-or-above these levels) are in the range of heavy metal levels that have been demonstrated to cause lasting harm.
• Action Levels are not related to serving size.
  • Action Levels are relevant for any amount of a food product that may be consumed (any quantity of the food in question).
  • PPB (parts per billion/ ppb) measurements are a percentage (albeit a very small percentage) and apply to any quantity of the food product tested.
  • For more discussion about serving size considerations (and why relying on “serving size” to limit toxicant exposure is not a relevant metric/ not a metric protective of human health), read this article.
• These “Action Levels” proposed in 2021 are the levels at which the scientific and medical community believe the manufacturer (or government) needs to take ACTION to fix the problem.
  • One “Action” would be for the manufacturer to take steps to reduce the levels of toxicants in the food product.
  • Another “Action” would be for the manufacturer to cease product sales until the product could be made safe.
  • Another “Action” would be for the manufacturer to inform the public that a specific food product has an unsafe level of the metal detected at-or-above the “Action Level” — making a highly-visible public announcement regarding which relevant batches of the product should be recalled/ not consumed.
• The Action Levels proposed with the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021 were not arbitrary toxicant levels — they were proposed because they are the levels most protective of human health. The Baby Food Safety Act of 2021, however, was not passed into law.
• Regardless of the fact the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021 never passed into law — and it is therefore legal to have food for children test positive for Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, and Arsenic at-or-above these levels — these Action Levels still reflect the current (modern/ relevant) advice of the medical and scientific communities as levels both achievable by the industry and safeguards of infant and toddler health.
• Food industry lobbyists fought against formalizing these proposed “Action Levels” as a government standard, alleging they were unachievable.
  • The image below (with the number SIX) links to a landing page with SIX food products we have already tested this year (2024), all of which have been “non-detect” for toxicants with low thresholds of detection (for Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, and Arsenic) far below the 2021 proposed Action Levels.
  • These SIX food products (about 10% of the foods Lead Safe Mama, LLC has tested and reported on so far since March of 2024, when we started laboratory testing foods) clearly demonstrate these Action Levels as achievable across a range of food types (salt, flour, coffee, oatmeal, chia seeds, and a soda product — plus we are about to add one more beverage to that list this month, bringing the list to seven “non-detect” foods).
• The legitimacy of these levels as “Action Levels”/ “Levels of Concern” (even though they were not adopted as law) is further supported by the situation’s similarity 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 snack ideas, click here.

For links to all six food items we have tested and reported on so far that tested “non-detect” for Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, and Arsenic, click the image below (with the big green and pink number six)!

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Published: August 21, 2024
Wednesday

Hello! We are working on publishing a LOT of food test results very quickly this week.

We will be updating this section of each article published this week (with more information about the specific product and other similar products for context) in the next week or two, but we wanted to make sure the greater Lead Safe Mama community (and the general public) had access to the scientific data provided in these lab reports (about foods and supplements they may have in their home) as quickly as possible.

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“I have been feeding this to my child! How can I ‘detox’ them/ what can I do?”

• Please note: Lead Safe Mama, LLC and Tamara Rubin are not healthcare providers/ medical practitioners and do not represent themselves as so. Instead, we share scientific findings from the greater global scientific community and ask that you evaluate those on their merits, discussing any medical decisions with your child’s doctor.
• With the above disclaimer noted, if your child has been eating this product (or any other confirmed or suspected Lead-contaminated foods) and they can tolerate garlic, you may want to increase their garlic consumption.
  • Roasted garlic spread on toast
  • Garlic on pizza
  • Garlic on pasta
  • Garlic in green smoothies
  • Chopped garlic on veggies
• Most “detox” products and potions on the market simply do not work (they are snake oil products designed to separate desperate parents from their hard-earned cash). Some detox products are also heavily Lead-contaminated and may result in a child being Lead-poisoned.
  • Please stay away from these types of detox products (any packaged/ manufactured “detox” product sold by a company).
• Science has repeatedly demonstrated (in multiple scientific studies from around the globe) that simply increasing the consumption of garlic (in any form, cooked or raw) to help with the elimination/ excretion of heavy metals (and specifically Lead) can be significantly beneficial after an exposure (read more about that here).
• Blueberries have also been scientifically demonstrated as a helpful “natural detox” too (when my children were babies I used to serve them frozen organic blueberries with a little bit of cream [or soy milk] drizzled over the top, which then freezes and turns it into an “ice cream”-like treat)!
• It is also always prudent to ask your doctor about getting a heavy metals panel (blood or urine) for anyone who has been eating contaminated foods — especially if you have not had one recently as a baseline.
  • This article discusses blood Lead testing.
  • This article discusses urine and hair testing.

Please scroll down to see the full lab report for the Annie’s macaroni & cheese (in Classic Cheddar flavor) product pictured above.

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Please do check out the other links on this page (below and above) for additional information about the truly independent, third-party, laboratory testing we are conducting on food products and other ingested items (including supplements and vitamins).

As there are almost no reasonable safety thresholds proposed for toxicants (heavy metals) consumed by adults (in foods and supplements), our focus is (as always) on the health of children. 

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Some additional reading & links that may be of interest:

1. This is the Lead Safe Mama affiliate link to purchase the test kits we used for this laboratory testing.
2. Here’s our landing page with links to all the food test results for products we have tested and reported on so far.
3. Here’s our landing page listing all the food testing we have in-progress (at the lab/ pending, etc.) — please consider making a contribution in support of any of the pending crowd-funded foods if they are a food you use! Thank you.
4. Here’s information on 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) and how to collaborate with Lead Safe Mama, LLC on the food testing we are organizing.

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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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Lab report for Annie’s Macaroni & Classic Cheddar — Made With Organic Pasta, as pictured here: