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Quick note from Tamara Rubin:

The above graphic is a chart comparing the toxicant profiles of twelve children’s vitamins that have been tested through the community collaborative (community directed and funded) independent, third party, laboratory testing coordinated by Lead Safe Mama, LLC. To learn more about Lead Safe Mama, LLC’s business model, click here. To see the specific lab reports for each of the prenatal vitamins samples that we have tested to date, click here (the lab report is at the bottom of the article for each specific vitamin product). We will be publishing an overview article discussing this data in detail shortly.

Please check out our open/ not-yet-funded campaigns on GoFundMe if you would like to support some of our additional independent, crowd-funded, third-party laboratory testing. Thank you!

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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 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 news coverage of our work, linked here.

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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:

• Proposed  Action Levels Are:
  
• 2 ppb – Mercury
• 5 ppb – Lead
• 5 ppb – Cadmium
• 10 ppb – Arsenic

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• 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” or a “Recommended Daily Amount” – if a product reaches the “Action Level” for heavy metals, it has too much of the heavy metals in question.
  • Many food & supplement manufacturers misinterpret existing guidance on heavy metals to mean the stated levels are “allowable levels” or “acceptable levels” (in spite of the scientific consensus that there is no safe level of Lead exposure – for example) and consider it reasonable for their products to test positive for heavy metals, but at levels that fall below any regulated maximums.
  • This is a (perhaps intentional?) misunderstanding/ misinterpretation the food & supplement industry makes — a misunderstanding that food manufacturers use to justify the presence of heavy metals in products.
  • As an example: a common refrain in this realm is when a supplement or food manufacturer proudly proclaims that their product meets prop 65 guidelines as it tests positive for Lead, but under the limit noted by Prop 65.  This position entirely disregards the well known scientific fact that there is no safe level of Lead exposure for humans.
• Heavy metals accumulate in the body.
  • It is the cumulative/ aggregate 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 or supplement product has the amount of heavy metal (Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, or Arsenic) noted (above) as the “Action Level,” that product is officially considered (by the scientific and medical community) to have metals at a level that is 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 a better (more health-protective) metric than Prop 65 limits as they are more comprehensive and NOT RELATED TO SERVING SIZE .
  • Serving sizes are set by manufacturers and in many cases do not reflect real world consumption habits and patterns (more on that below).
  • Serving size thresholds for toxicity also do not take into account realistic levels of toxicant ingestion from multiple  foods and supplements over the course of a given day  – or week – or month (especially given the fact that many products are typically consumed in quantities far greater than a manufacturer-set serving size).
  • Serving sizes are often set to quantities that are intentionally lower than anticipated actually daily consumption of a product (see bag of potato chips example below)  – set to these lower quantities specifically only in order for the company to be in compliance with Prop 65 (or other serving-size related) standards.
  • On the other hand , Action Levels are relevant for any amount of a food or supplement product that may be consumed (any quantity of the food or supplement in question).
  • Action levels are a better (more health-protective) measure as they would take into account the total heavy metals content of all products consumed throughout the day (were there to be a federally mandated, health protective Action Level for all ingested items).
  • If the Action Level for all items is protective of children’s health – one would never need to have any attention on how much of a product a child was consuming.
  • Action levels are a more reasonable metric in light of the fact that all federal agencies agree that there is no safe level of Lead exposure (especially for children, but truly for all humans).
  • If we are evaluating Lead exposure based on serving size we are contradicting science by asserting that a certain amount of Lead is ok (within arbitrary limits that – again – are not protective of human health).
  • PPB (parts per billion/ ppb) measurements are a percentage (albeit a very small percentage) and apply to any quantity of any food or supplement product (tested or ingested).
  • If all ingested foods and supplements were evaluated by ppb content for heavy metals across the board (using the same scale for all types of ingested products), confusion over safety limits would be eliminated.
  • By retaining a structure of serving-size based exposure our regulatory agencies are doing a disservice to consumers – again (& especially) as all federal agencies (and scientists and medical experts) agree that there is no safe level of Lead exposure.
  • 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  or supplement product.
  • Another “Action” would be for the manufacturer to cease sales of the product until the product could be made safe.
  • Another “Action” would be for the manufacturer to inform the public that a specific food or supplement 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/ no longer consumed.
• The Action Levels proposed with the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021 were not arbitrary toxicant levels, but were proposed because they are the levels most protective of human health. However, the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021 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 foods and supplements marketed for consumption by 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 and supplement industry lobbyists fought against formalizing these proposed “Action Levels” as a government standard, alleging the levels were unachievable.
• The list of safer choices (below) clearly demonstrate these Action Levels as achievable across a range of food and supplement types (vitamins, salt, flour, coffee, oatmeal, chia seeds, hemp seeds, soy milk, packaged fruit-based snacks, beverages, and more).
• The legitimacy of these levels as “Action Levels”/ “Levels of Concern” (even though they were not adopted as law) is mirrored by the legitimacy of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ level of concern for Lead in water, which is 1 ppb despite the FDA’s official “level of concern” for Lead in water being 15 ppb (you can read more about that here).

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 “Simply Not Achievable”

To reiterate: While the packaged, processed food industry would have consumers (and the government) believe the standards proposed in 2021 are unachievable, this industry position (an oft-rearticulated response to nearly every set of laboratory test results for food and supplements that we have published to date) is simply not true.

It is possible to make safer processed, packaged food products and supplements that fall well below the safety limits for toxicants proposed within the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021. To wit, the products listed below (the first section of the list below) tested “non-detect” for Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, and Arsenic — several even tested non-detect for Lead with the low threshold of detection being “less than 1.5 ppb.”

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Below is an EXPANDING list of products (foods and supplements) that have tested “non-detect” for Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, and Arsenic with independent, third-party, crowd-funded laboratory testing coordinated by Lead Safe Mama, LLC (an Oregon-based small business with a unique community-collaborative business model and a focus on consumer goods safety and childhood Lead poisoning prevention).
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The limits of detection for each of the metals tested are noted in the lab report for the specific product listed. To see the full lab report for any of these products, type the brand name into the search bar at the top of any page on Lead Safe Mama dot com (and scroll down to the bottom of the related article).
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Flavors tested are noted, and other flavors of the same product (or other products from the same brand) have either not been tested or have been tested but did not yield similar results. Test results only apply to the specific products linked below.

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LIST UPDATED December 25, 2024 – 44 Products!:

1. Baby Food — 1 — Little Spoon Kale, Carrot + Pear BabyBlends
2. Baby Food — 2 —Little Spoon Butternut Squash + Blueberry BabyBlends
3. Baby Food — 3 — Little Spoon Sweet Potato BabyBlends
4. Baby Food — 4 — Little Spoon Sweet Potato + Carrot BabyBlends
5. Baby Food — 5 — Little Spoon Banana + Pitaya BabyBlends
6. Beverage — 1 — Honest Kids Organic Appley Ever After Apple Juice Drink: https://amzn.to/4fjGhov
7. Beverage — 2 —  Olipop Grape Tonic: https://amzn.to/4cjFYZu
8. Breakfast Item — 1 — Nature’s Path Envirokidz Organic Panda Puffs: https://amzn.to/4fo1crf
9. Breakfast Item — 2 — One Degree Organic, Gluten-Free, Sprouted Rolled Oats (Canada): https://amzn.to/3WIQ1BN
10. Candy — Lindt White Chocolate Bar (Made in USA – New Hampshire): https://amzn.to/3OXkyIm
11. Candy — Cavendish & Harvey Wild Berry Drops, not organic (Germany): https://amzn.to/3Z1Jxjr
12. Coffee & Tea — 1 — Chameleon Handcrafted Organic Cold Brew Concentrate: https://amzn.to/3OcrH77
13. Coffee & Tea — 2 — Tao of Tea Organic Genmaicha (Tamara’s favorite, from Japan, sold by a Portland, Oregon-based company!): https://amzn.to/3Dp8Fsd
14. Coffee & Tea — 3 — Califia Farms Almond Latte Cold Brew (XX Espresso): https://amzn.to/4gTTGoJ
15. Coffee & Tea — 4 — Death Wish Organic Espresso Roast Ground Coffee (Multi-country origin, non-USA): https://amzn.to/3yo1eiL  
16. Coffee Creamer — Plant-Based  — 1 — Laird Superfood Coconut Creamer: https://amzn.to/4fItA7A
17. Coffee Creamer — Dairy — 2 — Organic Valley Grassmilk Half and Half: https://amzn.to/4fHJIWT
18. Dairy, Cheese – Babybel Mini Original Snack Cheese: https://amzn.to/3ZY5noO
19. Fruit Snack — 1 — GoGo Squeez Organic Apple Sauce Pouch: https://amzn.to/3XhWYLe
20. Fruit Snack — 2 — Pure Organic Layered Fruit Bars in Strawberry Banana Flavor: https://amzn.to/3WQEekA
21. Fruit Snack — 3 — Once Upon A Farm Dairy Free Fruit Smoothie Pouch in Strawberry Banana Swirl Flavor: https://amzn.to/3CPMbAw
22. Fruit Snack — 4 — Pure Organic Layered Fruit Bars in Raspberry Lemonade Flavor: https://amzn.to/3XcFsIp
23. Infant Formula — 1 — Bobbie Organic Gentle Infant Formula Milk-Based Powder with Iron (Pink & White Can): https://amzn.to/3YYb849 
24. Infant Formula — 2 — Bobbie Organic Infant Formula – Milk-Based Powder With Iron (Green & White Can): https://amzn.to/3VOr4Vy
25. Infant Formula — 3 — Bobbie Grass-Fed Milk-Based Powder with Iron (Green Can): https://amzn.to/3ZlAaeJ
26. Infant Formula — 4 — ByHeart Infant Formula (USA-Made, not organic): https://amzn.to/48DJjTb
    
27. Infant Formula — 5 — HiPP Bio Combiotik Infant Formula Powder – Stage 1 (imported)
28. Infant Formula — 6 — Holle Bio Goat Stage 2 Infant Formula (for 6-10 months, organic, European — Swiss/ German/ Austrian) is not available on Amazon, but the Stage 3 version of this product is (not yet tested, but will likely test similarly): https://amzn.to/3BVU7zI
29. Infant Formula — 7 — Kendamil Goat Infant Formula (not organic): This product may be available at Target (it is not available on Amazon)
30. Infant Formula — 8 — Kendamil Organic Follow-On Milk (European/ British Toddler Formula, for 6-12 months, Cow Milk): Not available on Amazon (report link)
31. Infant Formula — 9 — Kendamil Whole Milk Infant Formula (From Europe, Pink Can – Not Organic), available at Target
32. Infant Formula — 10 — Kendamil Organic Infant Formula (Cow Milk): Not available on Amazon but may be available at Target
33. Ingredient — 1 (salt) — Jacobsen’s Sea Salt (Oregon, USA): https://amzn.to/4dcbk5L
34. Ingredient — 2 (baking flour) — Jovial Organic Einkorn Flour (Italy): https://amzn.to/3LIqxix 
35. Ingredient — 3 (seeds) — Costco Kirkland Organic Hemp Seeds: https://amzn.to/4e05RP9
36. Ingredient — 4 (seeds) — Navitas Organic, Gluten-Free Chia Seeds (Mexico): https://amzn.to/3YvE7xC
37. Ingredient — 5 (beans) — Jovial Organic Chickpeas – Product of Italy: https://amzn.to/4iRON1l
38. Oil — 1 — Chosen Foods 100% Avocado Oil (not organic): https://amzn.to/3YDZSuv
39. Oil — 2 — Dr. Adorable’s Organic Perilla Seed Oil (Korea): https://amzn.to/3NDt7Yc
40. Plant-Based Milk — 1 — Kiki Milk Organic Plant Based Milk (original flavor): https://amzn.to/3AA6Qrt
41. Plant-Based Milk — 2 — West Soy Unflavored Unsweetened Organic Soy Milk: https://amzn.to/4dwev8l
42. Supplement — 1 — Baby Ddrops – Organic Vitamin D3 Supplement for Babies: https://amzn.to/49C3ktH
43. Supplement — 2 — Nordic Naturals Omega-3 Fish Oil: https://amzn.to/48q1j2V
44. Supplement — 3 — Mary Ruth’s Organic Toddler Multivitamin Liquid Drops with Iron: https://amzn.to/3YPhcgx

Here’s a link to the lab reports for of all of the foods and supplements we have tested.

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Stand by for more!
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BONUS FOUR: Below are FOUR additional products that each tested positive for trace (very low levels of) Arsenic — at levels considered safe by all standards (with the limits of detection noted in the lab report for the specific product listed):

1. Infant Formula — Kendamil Goat Toddler Milk, not organic (positive for traces of Arsenic): May be available at Target or through other online retailers of European infant formulas
2. Fruit Snack — That’s It Apple Cherry Bars, not organic (positive for traces of Arsenic): https://amzn.to/4fHkSWV
3. Oil — Chosen Foods 100% Pure Avocado Oil — Organic (postive for traces of Arsenic): https://amzn.to/3BVQYQa
4. Supplement — Now Sunflower Lecithin, not organic (positive for traces of Arsenic): https://amzn.to/3AFdHzO

Amazon links are affiliate links. 

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Published: December 30, 2024
Monday

More Key Points To Consider:

• There are almost no reasonable safety limits proposed for toxicant contamination (heavy metal contamination specifically) of foods and supplements consumed by adults (or by the general population) in the United States.
• Any available proposed safety thresholds (and guidance) for foods and supplements consumed by adults are not currently set at levels that are protective of human health – given practical / actual consumption patterns of foods (vs. manufacturer defined serving sizes)
  • The above point is especially important given children eat all foods, not just foods marketed for consumption by children (for example: find me a pre-teen that won’t go through an entire 5 ounce / 5-serving bag of potato chips in one sitting!)
• Our focus is (as always) on the health of children.
• By applying the standards proposed by the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021 to all foods and supplements – we are working more in line with standards that are protective of human health (for all!) given all scientific and medical experts agree that there is no safe level of Lead exposure for human beings.
• Said another way: You would never be eating a snack chip out of a bag and say to your 5 year old child “this product is only marketed for consumption by adults, so you cannot eat it.” That would be ridiculous. Kids eat what we eat, so everything that goes into our bodies in an attempt to nourish us and support our health and well being should be appropriate for any age consumer (not just a demographic designated by the manufacturer based on irrelevant age-group related toxicity standards for a specific product or ingredient).
• Remember: There is no safe level of Lead exposure for human beings. Period.
  • This is a non-negotiable point that everyone in the scientific and medical community – everyone who researches Lead poisoning – agrees with.

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This is the Lead Safe Mama Amazon affiliate link to purchase a test kit similar to what we use for our laboratory testing – this only tests to a low level of detection of 10 ppb, we are currently testing to a low threshold of detection of 5 ppb – and that testing is only available directly through the lab network.

To see more articles related to the laboratory testing of foods and supplements Lead Safe Mama, LLC is conducting (including background on this initiative and safer food choices and guidelines), click the pink square below. To see the full, independent, third-party laboratory report for the product pictured above, please scroll down to the bottom of this page.

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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.