Consumer warning: Lead-containing baby snacks make parents look for alternatives

ROCHESTER, NY – This consumer alert is about snack foods, lead and your baby. After our report on last week’s 4 p.m. newscast about lead in some baby snacks, my phone started ringing. Many parents were particularly upset. They chose these particular products because they are marketed as a healthy alternative to other baby snacks.

Serenity Kids is marketed as grain-free for people with digestive issues. And the website says the vegetables in the snacks are 100% organic.

Lesser Evil’s website states that the company makes healthy alternatives accessible and is committed to clean, uncompromising snacking.

However, testing by Consumer Reports found that both brands’ cassava-based products had alarmingly high levels of lead. For example, Lesser Evil’s Lil Puffs Sweet Potato Apple Asteroid and Serenity Kids Tomato and Herb Bone Broth Puffs both had high levels of lead.

But researchers at Consumer Reports say that by far the highest levels of lead are found in Lesser Evil’s Lil Puffs Intergalactic Voyager Veggie Blend.

“We found that even though it’s called Lesser Evil, it’s not Lesser Evil,” said James Rogers, director of product safety, research and testing at Consumer Reports. “The two Lesser Evil products and one from Serenity Kids contained concerning levels of lead. In fact, one of the Lesser Evil products contained the highest levels of lead of any children’s food we’ve ever tested, and we’ve been testing since 2017.”

When asked why cassava-based products have higher lead levels, he replied: “Cassava is a root vegetable, so the root grows in the soil. And if you plant these cassava plants in an area where the soil is contaminated with lead, the lead will be absorbed into the root.”

And when those root vegetables are harvested, all the lead absorbed from the contaminated soil ends up in baby food or snacks. Representatives from both companies told Consumer Reports that they test both the raw and finished products for heavy metals and stand by their baby snacks.

Although Consumer Reports does not endorse processed or packaged foods for babies, if you give them to your baby, you should alternate them with fresh fruits and vegetables as snacks. Knowledge is power. Consumer Reports has listed all of its product tests and the heavy metal levels.

Here you will find links to more information about Consumer Reports’ testing of heavy metals in baby food.

Heavy metals in baby food: What you need to know

Are there still heavy metals in baby food??

Study shows that homemade baby food contains arsenic and other heavy metals just as often as store-bought

CR tests show that some fruit puree bags for children have worrying lead levels

And here’s more information about Consumer Reports’ advocacy work supporting congressional legislation to protect babies and young children from heavy metals and pathogens in baby food.

CR supports Congressional bill to protect infants and young children from toxic heavy metals and pathogens in food