Lead in Kids’ Food: What Parents Need to Know

Over the past year, alarming headlines about high lead levels in foods marketed to children have left many parents feeling worried and confused. It started with an FDA recall of applesauce pouches in fall of 2023, followed by Consumer Reports’ studies in 2024 sounding alarms about high lead content in Lunchables, cassava puffs, and other snacks. In this article, I sort out the data in these studies to provide parents with the facts they need to make informed decisions about these foods.

Why are Lead Levels Monitored in Food?

Lead is toxic to the brain, especially the developing brain, and high blood lead levels can cause behavioral problems, decreased IQ, hyperactivity, developmental delays, poor school performance, and attention deficit in children. Because of these devastating effects, kids in the United States undergo routine blood tests for lead toxicity at ages 12 months and 24 months. Since lead is so damaging to childrens’ brains, there is no blood lead level in children that is considered safe, but the CDC has set a ‘blood lead reference value’ of 3.5 ug/dL to determine which children have a higher than usual amount of lead. Once these children are identified, steps can be taken to identify and remove the sources of the lead contamination.

Unfortunately, we are all exposed to small amounts of lead through everyday life. Sources of contamination include old lead paint chips and lead in soil, which infants and toddlers are more susceptible to ingesting during their crawling & hand-to-mouth phase. Other possible sources of exposure in children include toys, jewelry, lead-glazed ceramics, cosmetics, imported spices, pottery, drinking water, and food. Thankfully lead levels in young children have declined by 97% since the 1980’s due to reduced use of lead in food cans, gasoline, and paint.

Why is there Lead in Food?

Although in an ideal world, our food would be completely lead-free, trace amounts of heavy metals are found in many food crops due to soil contamination. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to avoid exposure 100%. In order to mitigate risk, health authorities have set reference limits for maximum daily intake of lead from food. However, two of these agencies, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), have significantly different daily intake limits for lead in food.

The California MADL (Maximum Allowable Dose Level) for lead intake through food in children is 0.5 ug/day, whereas the FDA IRL (Interim Reference Level) limit is 2.2 ug/day in children. The FDA limit, which is over 4 times the MADL, was set to include a 10x safety factor for lead exposure. This means that 10x the FDA limit of 2.2 ug (or 44x the CA MADL limit) is the amount of lead intake that would likely bump blood levels into a higher than normal level and exceed the blood lead reference value of 3.5 ug/dL.

The MADL limits are part of California’s controversial ‘Proposition 65’, a law that requires businesses to post health warnings on a vast variety of products ranging from furniture to dietary supplements sold in California.  The MADL is calculated based on ‘NOEL’ (no observable effect level), which is the highest level of exposure to a chemical where no observable harmful effects occur in animal studies. As a safety factor, the NOEL is divided by 1,000 to arrive at the MADL. 

What is Proposition 65?

Although California’s Proposition 65 (the Safe Drinking Water & Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986) was enacted to provide consumer protection, it is highly controversial, with critics saying that the ever-present warning labels have lost their meaning much like the ‘boy who cried wolf’. One of the most infamous examples of Prop 65 is the warning posted outside of Disneyland stating that the resort ‘contains chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm’. 

Similar warnings are found on many supplements such as multivitamins, requiring manufacturers to have a separate label for products sold in CA vs other states. Since the warning labels are ubiquitous, many people ignore them since they seem impossible to avoid. Similarly, many critics feel that the MADL lead limit is too stringent and raises alarms for foods that are not risky for kids to consume, which may lead increased anxiety about food safety for parents and less dietary variety for kids.

How is Lead in Food Measured?

One reason that these recent reports & studies have been confusing for parents to interpret is that they are often using different units & measurements for quantifying the amount of lead in the food. There are 3 different units used in these reports, and often not side-by-side, making it difficult to make an ‘apples to apples’ comparison and understand which foods are truly dangerous for kids to consume. Here are the different measurements used in these studies:

  • ug (micrograms, mass of lead) 
  • ppb (parts per billion, concentration of lead)
  • % MADL (used in the consumer reports studies, where lead mass in food is listed as a % of the California MADL)

In addition to limits that have been established for blood lead levels in kids (<3.5 ug/dl) and maximum daily intake from food (0.5 ug/day per MADL or 2.2 ug/day per FDA), the FDA is also working on ‘action levels’ for concentrations of lead & other heavy metals found in baby food. The FDA’s Closer to Zero plan, which hasn’t been finalized yet, proposes to set the following action levels for concentration of lead & other heavy metals in processed foods intended for babies and young children:

  • 10 ppb lead for fruits, veggies, yogurts, single-ingredient meats
  • 20 ppb lead for single-ingredient root vegetables & dry infant cereals

Once Closer To Zero goes into effect, if baby foods exceed the ppb lead limits, the FDA may either work with manufacturers to address the issue, or prevent the food from entering or remaining in the U.S. market. 

So How Much Lead was Found in These Foods Marketed to Kids?

Applesauce Pouches:

In the 2023 WanaBana, Schnucks, & Weis applesauce pouch contamination, the amount of lead found in the products was sufficient to trigger an FDA recall. There were 136 confirmed cases, 345 probable cases, and 38 suspected cases of children with elevated blood lead levels (>3.5 mcg/dl) from eating these products. Contamination was traced to the cinnamon used in the pouches, which later led to cinnamon recalls. For example, the WanaBana apple cinnamon puree contained 2,180 ppb of lead, which is over 200 times the proposed limit in Closer to Zero! One applesauce pouch containing 2,180 ppb would expose a child to > 70 times the FDA lead limit of 2.2 ug, and > 309 times the California MADL limit of 0.5 ug. 

Lunchables & Puffs:

The Consumer Report (CR) Lunchables & Veggie Puffs reports used California’s MADL as the basis for measuring and reporting lead levels. The report didn’t provide figures as either ug of lead per serving or ppb, which would have been easier to interpret. Instead, they ranked foods based on the % of lead in 1 serving of the product compared to the MADL limit of 0.5 ug per day. 

The CR study found that various Lunchables contained between 69-74% of the California MADL (which is closer to 16-17% of the FDA daily limit for children), and puffs contained between 3% and 112% of the MADL, with cassava based puffs coming in with the highest lead content . At first glance, the % MADL numbers look very scary to parents because they are so high, but they don’t provide enough context to understand what this percentage means. It’s important to understand that unlike the recalled applesauce pouches, the Lunchables & Puffs didn’t exceed any governmental safety standards and they were not subsequently recalled from the market.  

What About Lead in Other Foods?

You might be wondering if so many foods contain lead, is there a more comprehensive set of data for lead in food outside of the few studies listed here? The answer is yes, and it comes in the form of the FDA Total Diet Study, which monitors both nutrient and contaminant levels in various foods eaten by people in the U.S. The 2018-2020 Total Diet Study has a comprehensive database of hundreds of foods. 

The FDA Total Diet Study results revealed that the following foods had the highest concentrations of lead: baking powder, cocoa powder, processed baby foods (especially sweet potatoes), teething biscuits, cookie sandwiches, baked sweet potatoes, barbecue sauce, and raisins. The data was presented in PPB (concentration). In order to determine the mass of lead (ug) present in these foods, a typical serving size must be determined. I used serving size information from the USDA Food Data Central database to calculate the amount of lead in a typical serving size (ug) for a few of these foods. 

In the table below, I’ve included the various foods discussed in this article (recalled applesauce pouches, Lunchables, Puffs, and a few foods from the Total Diet Study) with lead levels presented in all of the units (ug lead per serving, ppb, % MADL, and % FDA IRL) to provide a better comparison of lead content. Foods are listed in the order of descending mass of lead per serving (ug).

Comparison of Lead Content in Food

 * Lead mass consumed in a typical serving size was calculated on the following bases:

  • WanaBana apple cinnamon puree: PPB reported from the FDA recall was used with the manufacturer’s reported serving size per pouch to calculate ug lead per serving size.
  • Foods from the FDA Total Diet Study: Mean PPB Lead reported in the FDA Total Diet Study FY  2018-2020 Report Supplement: Summary of Analytical Results was used along with a typical serving size obtained from the USDA Food Data Central to calculate ug lead consumed per serving.
  • Foods from the Consumer Reports’ studies: % MADL was used to calculate ug per serving; ug per serving, along with serving size from the manufacturers, was used to calculate PPB.

What does this Data Mean?

By studying this table and comparing the foods on the same basis, you can see:

 

  • The amount of lead in the recalled applesauce pouches was extremely high compared to the lead content in the foods tested in Consumer Reports and FDA Total Diet Study. 

  • Some foods (i.e. puffs) have a higher ppb of lead per serving, but a lower mass of lead consumed per serving. This is due to the fact that puffs are very lightweight and the mass of the typical serving size is very low. However, parents need to also consider how many servings of puffs their children consume. Many toddlers will consume several servings per day, which will increase their lead exposure.

  • Although Consumer Reports is raising alarm for various manufactured foods (and may continue to release similar reports), some unprocessed foods such as baked sweet potatoes & baked white potatoes contain more lead than the foods highlighted in the CR reports.

What are the Takeaways About Lead in Kids' Food?

Hopefully this article has given you a better understanding of lead in food, and taken some of the fear and confusion out of the issue. Here are some key points:

  • It’s impossible to avoid lead intake through food completely, but our goal is to minimize exposure while still maintaining dietary variety and a healthy relationship with food that is not overshadowed by fear.
  • Staying beneath the FDA IRL of 2.2 ug per day of lead intake for kids provides a 10x safety factor.
  • The only foods that were recalled for lead in the past year were certain brands of applesauce pouches and cinnamon.
  • The California MADL limits that Consumer Reports uses in their studies are extremely low and might lead to ‘false alarms’ or contribute to food-phobia. Presenting figures only as a % of MADL doesn’t tell the whole story and is misleading to parents.
  • Considering both ppb and % of the FDA IRL (2.2 ug per day for kids) can help parents arrive at their comfort level with various foods.
  • It’s important to consider how many servings per day of the food your child is likely to eat. 
    • A container of puffs can easily be consumed by a toddler in 1-2 days, which would increase their lead exposure from that product. For example, Lesser Evil Lil’ Puffs Sweet Potato Apple Asteroid contains 10 servings per 2.5 oz package. If a toddler consumes half of the package in 1 day, they’ve had 5 servings, increasing their lead intake to 1.5 ug, which is 68% of the FDA IRL. 
    • On the other hand, a small child may not eat an entire sweet potato, which would decrease their serving size and thus lead exposure. Half of a medium sweet potato might contain 0.68 ug of lead, which is 31% of the FDA IRL.
  • Consider the age/size of the child. The younger & smaller the child, the greater the impact of lead on their body. 
  • Varying foods throughout the week and month is a good strategy to decrease lead exposure while providing a greater variety of nutrients.

In conclusion, I hope this article helped you understand the different measurements pertaining to lead in food so that you can make more informed choices for your family!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top

Submit your email to be the first to know when registration opens: