Root Vegetable Purees
Completeness scorecard
Deterministic gap audit — no score is composite, no cell is LLM-judged. Each chip is re-derivable by re-running tools/evidence/build-ingredient-scorecard.mjs. review: residuals and missing data are worked autonomously via data/evidence/ingredient-scorecard-review-flags.csv and wiki/completeness-gaps.md.
| Dimension | Status | What’s there (auditable counts) | What’s missing |
|---|---|---|---|
| D1 Analyte coverage (tier: unset) | GAP | 3/10 HMTc analytes, total n=6 | only 3/10 analytes have evidence |
| D2 Regional coverage | below-tier | 0 jurisdictions | only 0 distinct jurisdiction(s) |
| D3 Anthropogenic evidence | GAP | no upstream/attribution sources | link a supply-chain/ hub page |
| D4 Background mechanism | GAP | section present, 0 drivers, 0 upstream source(s) | drivers[] empty; no upstream source to substantiate |
| D5 Pooling depth | THIN | Cd THIN, tHg THIN, tAs THIN | Cd: needs 1 more study(ies); tHg: needs 1 more study(ies); tAs: needs 1 more study(ies) |
| D6 Speciation | OK | iAs, tHg, tAs declared | — |
| D7 Basis declaration | GAP | 0/10 populated cells declare a basis token | 10 populated cell(s) lack a basis token: Pb, Cd, iAs, tHg, Ni, Al, Cr, Sn, tAs, U |
| D8 Provenance integrity | GAP | 4 claims checked, 4 supported; 2 citations, 0 orphan, 2 foreign | 2 foreign citation(s) not naming root-vegetable-purees: fda-ctz-Pb-babyfood-2025, codex-cxs-193-1995 |
| D9 Mitigation | OK | 1 cited lever(s), 6 mitigation/ link(s) | — |
| D10 Regulatory coverage | OK | 2 rule link(s), 0 metal(s) covered | unmapped analytes: Cd, tHg, tAs |
| D11 Standards-readiness | NOT-READY | priority: Cd, tHg, tAs; pairing 0 paired, 3 single, 0 unpaired | Cd: THIN, needs 1 more study(ies); tHg: THIN, needs 1 more study(ies); tAs: THIN, needs 1 more study(ies); basis: 10 populated cell(s) lack a basis token: Pb, Cd, iAs, tHg, Ni, Al, Cr, Sn, tAs, U; consumption tier unset (depth bar uncheckable) |
| Principle balance | flag | consumer-protection 0.50, contamination-reduction 1.00, brand-value 0.00, legal-defensibility 0.38, scale 0.25 | spread 1.00 — starved: brand-value |
This is a structural ingredient node created so product pages can link to a real wiki target. Occurrence values remain pending until a source is promoted for this ingredient.
Heavy metal contamination profile
Per-analyte snapshot derived from the machine-readable contamination_profile in the frontmatter above. data gap indicates the literature has been reviewed for this commodity-analyte combination and no usable occurrence data was found (a finding, not a placeholder). The Key sources column shows the top 2-3 contributing sources by year and sample size, with numbered wikilink aliases.
| Analyte | Coverage | Typical (ppb) | p95 (ppb) | Confidence | Key sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pb | data gap | — | — | — | — |
| Cd | n=2 | 0.433–5 | 5 | low | — |
| iAs | data gap | — | — | — | — |
| tAs | n=2 | 0.053–12 | 12 | low | — |
| tHg | n=2 | 0–1.5 | 1.5 | low | — |
| Ni | data gap | — | — | — | — |
| Al | data gap | — | — | — | — |
| Cr | data gap | — | — | — | — |
| Sn | data gap | — | — | — | — |
| U | data gap | — | — | — | — |
Routing
This node is linked from root-vegetable-purees.
Contamination Profile State
The machine-readable contamination profile is pending. Ingredient-level values belong here once parsed; finished-product values belong on the relevant product-category page.
Sources
No source pages are currently cited for this ingredient node.
Why this commodity accumulates heavy metals
Root vegetable purees is the aggregate ingredient label for infant-and-toddler purees made from root-vegetable bases including carrots, sweet potatoes, beets, parsnips, white potatoes, and similar tuber-and-root crops. Root vegetables accumulate Pb at the soil-root interface and Cd via cortical uptake during plant growth; this is documented in detail on the vegetables aggregate page. Root-vegetable purees inherit the source-vegetable metal profile, with Pb particularly concentrated relative to non-root vegetables because root vegetables grow directly in soil where legacy Pb-contamination concentrates.
The FDA Closer to Zero baby-food Pb action level differentiates root vegetable purees (20 ppb Pb) from non-root vegetable purees (10 ppb Pb) specifically because root vegetables carry the higher baseline Pb from soil-contact. The HMTc panel concerns for root vegetable purees are Pb (dominant), Cd, and trace iAs (in root vegetables grown in As-affected regions). Routes into root-vegetable-purees (Cat 1 row for infant root-vegetable products).
Ranges by source, region, and variety
Variance within root vegetable purees tracks the source-vegetable mix (carrot-only vs sweet-potato-only vs mixed-root-vegetable formulations), source-region soil profile (industrial-region or urban-garden production carries elevated Pb; commercial agricultural production sits at moderate baseline; certified-clean-soil production sits at lower baseline), and processing tier. Carrot-based purees are the most common single-vegetable infant product; sweet potato is the second-most-common; beet, parsnip, and white potato purees are less common.
Processing effects
Root-vegetable puree manufacturing involves washing, peeling (substantial Pb reduction by removing surface-deposited Pb), cooking, pureeing, and packaging (jar, pouch, or aseptic carton). Peeling is the dominant processing-stage mitigation lever for root-vegetable Pb; the peeled-and-cooked puree carries substantially lower per-mass Pb than the unpeeled raw vegetable. Sterilization (retort processing for jarred and pouched products) does not affect metals.
Ingredient-derivative risk
Root vegetable purees route into Cat 1 row root-vegetable-purees as the primary infant feeding product family. Derivatives include single-vegetable purees (carrot puree, sweet potato puree, beet puree) and mixed-root-vegetable purees. Mixed-meals products containing root vegetables alongside grains, proteins, or other ingredients dilute the per-product root-vegetable metal load.
Mitigation options
Sourcing levers (supply-chain-screening) are dominant. Source-vegetable origin specification favoring documented low-soil-Pb production regions; supplier-soil verification programs; and contractual Pb/Cd ceiling on incoming root vegetables for infant-product manufacturers operating to tight specifications.
Agronomic levers (agronomic) operate at the root-vegetable cultivation stage. Soil pH management; soil amendments (biochar, lime); cultivar selection; remediation of urban-and-industrial production sites.
Processing levers (processing) include thorough peeling for maximum Pb reduction; washing optimization; and avoidance of equipment-cleaning chemicals that could introduce metals.
Formulation levers (formulation) include partial substitution of higher-Pb root vegetables (beet) with lower-Pb alternatives (carrot, sweet potato) where the matrix permits.
Testing and QC levers (testing-and-qc) include lot-level Pb, Cd testing on finished root-vegetable purees against FDA Closer to Zero 20 ppb Pb action level for root vegetable purees (FDA 2025).
Packaging and storage levers (packaging-and-storage) include glass-jar, pouch, or aseptic-carton packaging (modern infant-food packaging); avoidance of older soldered or unlined-metal storage.
Regulatory limits that apply
- eu-2023-915 — EU Reg. 2023/915 sets binding maximum levels for Pb and Cd in infant-and-young-child foods.
- FDA Closer to Zero baby-food Pb action level: 20 ppb for root vegetable purees (FDA 2025).
- Codex Alimentarius CXS 193-1995 (Codex 1995) sets infant-food category limits.
- California Prop 65 (california-prop65) Pb MADL applies to root-vegetable-puree products sold in California.
Page history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.
| Commit | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| b0f3d38 | 2026-06-12 | batch | corpus rescreen b04 old terminal skips |