One of the many milestones as a parent is watching your baby build a healthy, meaningful relationship with food. But, if you’re feeding your little one jarred baby food, you’d never expect that they contain a hidden health threat. In fact, per a new report from the Environmental Defense Fund there’s an alarming amount of baby food that contains detectable levels of lead.
The study, which evaluated 11 years of data from the Food and Drug Administration – spanning from 2003 to 2013 – discovered lead in 20 percent of baby food samples compared to 14 percent of other foods.
“Overall, 20 percent of 2,164 baby food samples and 14 percent of the other 10,064 food samples had detectable levels of lead. At least one sample in 52 of the 57 types of baby food analyzed by FDA had detectable levels of lead in it,” the study reads.
The worst culprits – where lead was most commonly found – were the following foods:
Fruit juices: 89% of grape juice samples contained detectable levels of lead, mixed fruit (67%), apple (55%), and pear (45%)
Root vegetables: Sweet potatoes (86%) and carrots (43%)
Cookies: Arrowroot cookies (64%) and teething biscuits (47%)
How Much Lead Is Safe?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),…