United States: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has set new rules to limit the amount of lead in baby foods like jarred fruits, vegetables, yogurts, and dry cereal. This is to help reduce young kids’ exposure to lead, a harmful metal that can cause brain and nerve problems.
The agency has released final guidance that when fully adopted it could eliminate lead in as much as 20% to 30% of the processed baby foods. These are the health claims for food manufacturers, but the FDA can take enforcement action against foods that that go beyond these limits.
As reported by the HealthDay, this is part of the ongoing efforts of the FDA to ‘minimize dietary intake of contaminant, including lead, as close to zero as possible in the long run while at the same time preserving access to wholesome foods,’ the agency noted.
Groups that have been pushing for measures to reduce lead limit in foods that children consume welcomed a guide put forward two years ago but was quick to state that more could be done.
Center for Science in the Public Interest; Still, today’s FDA action is a step forward and will help protect children,” stated the scientist, Thomas Galligan. “However, the agency took too much time to act and excluded vital public concern that would have enhanced these standards.”
What remains unchanged are limits on lead for children below two years of age do not include grain-based snacks such as puffs and teething. And they do not confine other metals like cadmium that has been found in baby foods.
Brian Ronholm, director of food policy for like the Consumer Reports, said the limits are actually “virtually meaningless since they take more into consideration the reality that they can implement them and not the health of the people.”
A GERBER baby food spokesman said they all conform with the writing to following limits:
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that lead exposure poses no harm regardless of how low the level is in children. The use of the metal results in “documented health effects …to the brain and also to the nervous system and general developmental retardation.” But lead is present in some natural foods and results from pollution of air and water, and that soil which makes it difficult to get rid of
