Are your potato chips safe for kids to eat? Probably not (if you are looking at long-term health as a metric).

  

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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 six 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 news coverage of our work

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Updated: November 4, 2024

As I expect many of us will be glued to the TV tomorrow [possibly eating snacks] watching the future of our country unfold… I thought tonight would be a good time to share a reminder that potato chips are not a safe food (especially for young children)…

Every single brand and type of potato chips we have tested and reported on so far (see graphic at the top of this page) has tested positive for an unsafe level of Cadmium -– which is well documented (for about 30 years now) as a known carcinogen.

If we do ONE thing (in the food space) for our children and future generations, weaning them off of potato chips as an acceptable “go to” snack would likely dramatically decrease cancer rates…especially considering the fact that potato chips are America’s Number One Snack Food — with over TEN BILLION DOLLARS in sales annually. Ten BILLION!

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Manufacturer’s Stated Serving Sizes are Simply Not Realistic!

• In addition to the above facts, most toxicity concerns & recommended or regulated limits (e.g. California’s “Prop 65”) are generally correlated to “serving size”.
• “Serving size” is a quantity that is relatively arbitrarily set by the product’s specific industry / manufacturer (normally set at a level of consumption that is considerably lower than actual real-world consumption patterns for the product in question – normally set intentionally low to help the product appear to meet a variety of standards). 
• The manufacturer / industry set “serving size” is especially irrelevant and – with the example of potato chip consumption – is clearly a “standard” that is not strict enough / not protective of children’s health, when you take into account how many potato chips the average child actually consumes in one sitting – and substitute a real-world “serving” as a more reasonable metric for evaluating toxicity concerns.

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• • QUESTION: Do teens (and tweens, and other kids) ever eat just one “serving” of potato chips?
    • Note: there are “FIVE-to-EIGHT servings” in a standard bag of potato chips
  • ANSWER: NO!
    • Teens and tweens (and other kiddos too!) typically / often consume a full bag of potato chips in a sitting! (5-to-8 ounces of chips, which is 5-to-8 one-ounce servings – see graphic below).

 

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To reiterate: while the potato chip industry (& manufacturers) might allege “full compliance” with some toxicant exposure standards – standards based on serving size considerations that they themselves have set within the industry – that ostensible “compliance with exposure standards” is illusory…when you look at the actual consumption levels of these products (typical consumption habits of the target-market for these products).

Tonight we will be publishing the test results for Lay’s Classic Chips, and Ruffles Potato Chips. Spoilers: the results are consistent with those shared above.

Tamara

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Supporting Documentation:

1. Here’s a link to a summary of the study noted in point three on the graphic above (about 17 cancers).
2. Here’s a link to the Potato Chip Industry Sales Numbers (charts below)
3. Most popular potato chip brands (chart below)

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Please bookmark this page, and check back here for more potato chip laboratory test results soon. We just recently got the lab reports for “Lays”, and “Ruffles” back from the lab (& expect we will be publishing those reports tonight – 11/4/2024).

Note: when comparing the levels of Cadmium found in each of these products with the action level proposed by the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021, none of these potato chips should be considered safe for consumption by young children. This is discussed in detail on the article for each of the specific products shown below.

#KnowBetterDoBetter Please feel free to share any of the graphics on your social media channels to help spread the word. You can get a ful-sized (not blurry!) copy of the graphic by clicking the link for the article for the product pictured. Full laboratory test reports for each of the products shown in the graphics below can also be found on these links (at the bottom of each page):

1. Vandy Chips (cooked in beef tallow)
2. Good Crisp Chips (“natural” alternative to Pringles)
3. Siete Serrano Sea Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips (cooked in Avocado Oil)
4. Boulder Canyon Classic Sea Salt Potato Chips (cooked in Avocado Oil)
5. Kettle Brand Air Fried Sea Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips

Looking for an alternative to snack on? Something that’s a safer choice but that’s also super tasty and crunchy? Try this! https://amzn.to/3YizHrY

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

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