We’ve been disturbed by the latest headlines revealing concerning levels of heavy metals in popular, store-bought baby food brands. A 2021 report found that, "commercial baby foods are tainted with significant levels of toxic heavy metals, including arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury."
We partner with trusted farms who are USDA Certified Organic, Non-GMO Project Verified and follow rigorous food safety testing. We also look at federal data on soil contamination to find the best farms.
We carefully choose our ingredients, avoiding some such as rice, which is known to be high in arsenic. Unfortunately, rice is one of the most popular ingredients in store-bought baby food because it is abundant and cheap. We believe families — especially babies — deserve higher standards.
We regularly test our ingredients and finished products for heavy metals.
As our families know, we make our meals in small batches and use light processing, to keep your food tasting like, well, real food.
Our meals are not fortified and do not include artificial additives. The 2021 government report noted that certain additives, such as poorly vetted vitamin mixes, can lead to high heavy metal results in baby food products.
Just because a product is organic, doesn't mean it's necessarily good for you or even free of heavy metals. Many heavy metals still make their way to plants even in organic soil. That's because contaminated water run-off, not pesticides, are the common cause of metal in soil.
Contaminants, on the other hand, are caused by contaminated cooking water, metals used in the food processing equipment, over-processing and overheating certain foods.
Heavy metals occur naturally in soil—in fact, the USDA measures soil for mineral levels yearly. However, things go awry when food comes into contact with water run-off or soil contaminated through farming or industrial manufacturing practices.
Lead
Arsenic
Cadmium
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Studies show that exposure to lead, can cause learning and behavioral problems. According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, it can cause lasting problems with growth and development including lower IQ, Autism, ADHD, hearing problems, and Anemia.
Heavy metals occur naturally in soil—in fact, the USDA measures soil for mineral levels yearly. However, things go awry when food comes into contact with water run-off or soil contaminated through farming or industrial manufacturing practices.
Lead
Arsenic
Cadmium
* undefined
Tomatoes, blueberries, spirulina and garlic bind to heavy metals in the digestive track and remove them.
Broccoli, kale and beans are high in calcium and iron, two nutrients that block lead absorption. Vitamin C helps boost absorption of iron, so we recommend serving iron rich foods with foods rich in vitamin C like kiwis, papaya, peppers or tomatoes.
Soy based infant formulas have on average 7x more Cadmium than other formulas.
Rice cereals are common first foods, but brown rice is one of the highest forms of arsenic we come in contact with in food.
A study conducted in 2012 found that nearly 10% of 88 apple and grape juices sampled had worrisome levels of arsenic.
We nerd out so you don’t have to. Our research is backed by 1000’s of clinical studies. Below are a few of standouts.