A study of the top-selling as well as emerging brands of baby food products such as infant formula, juice drinks, and cereals revealed that many of these products contain toxic chemicals such as arsenic, lead, and acrylamide. Here are the best and worst products, according to the report.
Baby Food Products Positive For Arsenic And Other Toxic Chemicals
A recent study conducted by Clean Label Project revealed that many baby food products bought in the last five months tested positive for arsenic and other toxic chemicals. In the study, they tested over 500 baby food products including 86 infant formulas, 138 toddler snacks, 138 baby food pouches, and 30 baby cereals.
The products at the bottom of the lists had 170 percent more arsenic, 35 percent more cadmium, 30 percent more lead, and 20 percent more acrylamide compared to the products at the top. What's more, almost 80 percent of infant formula tested positive for traces of arsenic, while 60 percent of the products stating that they were "BPA free" actually tested positive for BPA.
Interestingly, some brands have products at both the top and bottom of the lists.
Baby Cereals
Among the baby cereals tested, Happy Baby Oatmeal Organic Probiotic Baby Cereal was ranked the best, followed by three Beech-Nut products and Little Duck Organics Mighty Oats Cereal 5 Ancient Grains Naked Cereal. Among the worst products were specific baby cereals made by Healthy Times, Organix, Gerber, Earth's Best, and Parent's Choice.
Infant Formulas
Baby's Only Dairy Organic Non-GMO Toddler Formula got the top spot in best infant formulas followed by two Enfamil formulas, and two Similac formulas. On the other hand, specific products from Peaceful Planet Toddler, Abbott EleCare, Happy Tot, Comforts For Toddler were at the bottom of the list.
Interestingly, Enfamil's Reguline Milk-based Powder with Iron Infant Formula was also at the bottom of the list.
Infant Snacks
Kiddylicious Banana Bites was ranked the best among the tested snacks. Comforts For Toddler, Happy Baby, and two Gerber snacks are also among the best. Conversely, Happy Baby Organic Teethers Sweet Potato and Banana Gentle Teething Wafers and Gerber Graduates Lil' Biscuits Vanilla Wheat Biscuits snacks were at the bottom of the list, along with specific Parent's Choice, Little Duck Organics, and Nosh! snacks.
Brand Report Cards
Common baby food product brands were rated from one to five stars according to toxic metals, by product contaminants, process contaminants, and nutritional superiority.
Among the brands, Orgain is at the top spot with five stars, while Yummy Spoonfuls follows closely with 4.7 stars. Conversely, the brand report card of Nosh! showed 1.4 stars, while Little Duck Organics got a rating of two stars.
"Our product evaluations are based on analytical chemistry testing. We do not make assumptions for product recommendations based on manufacturer supplied data, peer-reviewed research reports or data from other consumer advocacy groups," Clean Label Project writes on their website.
