BfR 2018 - Cadmium and lead in infant foods

The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment assessed lead and cadmium occurrence in foods for infants and young children using German Federal Control Plan 2015 and Monitoring 2015 data. The source covers baby formula in powder and ready-to-eat forms, processed cereal-based foods, rusks/biscuits, and complete meals for infants and young children. Cadmium and lead are reported in mg per kg occurrence tables and µg per kg body weight and day exposure tables.

Key numbers

• Dataset frame: the source evaluated 444 Federal Control Plan records for both lead and cadmium, plus 77 Monitoring records for lead and 78 Monitoring records for cadmium in foods for infants and young children.
• Source-reported EU maximum levels, Table 1: cadmium maximum levels are 0.010 mg per kg for powdered formulae from cow’s milk proteins/protein hydrolysates, 0.005 mg per kg for liquid formulae from cow’s milk proteins/protein hydrolysates, 0.020 mg per kg for powdered formulae from soya protein isolates alone or mixed with cow’s milk proteins, 0.010 mg per kg for liquid formulae from soya protein isolates alone or mixed with cow’s milk proteins, and 0.040 mg per kg for processed cereal-based foods and other baby foods.
• Source-reported EU maximum levels, Table 1: lead maximum levels are 0.050 mg per kg for infant/follow-on formula powder, 0.010 mg per kg for infant/follow-on formula liquid, and 0.050 mg per kg for processed cereal-based foods and other baby foods.
• Cadmium occurrence, Table 2 (mg per kg, medium bound): food made from cow’s milk proteins or protein hydrolysates (powder) N=257, % <LOD/LOQ 77, mean 0.003, P95 0.007; food made from soya protein isolates alone or in a mixture (powder) N=20, % <LOD/LOQ 0, mean 0.013, P95 0.017.
• Cadmium occurrence, Table 2 (mg per kg, medium bound): processed cereal-based food (powder) N=199, % <LOD/LOQ 11, mean 0.019, P95 0.037; rusk or biscuits for infants and young children N=30, % <LOD/LOQ 3, mean 0.013, P95 0.021; complete meals for infants and young children N=16, % <LOD/LOQ 50, mean 0.005, P95 0.017.
• Lead occurrence, Table 3 (mg per kg, medium bound): food made from cow’s milk proteins or protein hydrolysates (powder) N=257, % <LOD/LOQ 72, mean 0.010, P95 0.026; food made from soya protein isolates alone or in a mixture (powder) N=20, % <LOD/LOQ 85, mean 0.009, P95 0.043.
• Lead occurrence, Table 3 (mg per kg, medium bound): processed cereal-based food (powder) N=198, % <LOD/LOQ 72, mean 0.008, P95 0.016; rusk or biscuits for infants and young children N=30, % <LOD/LOQ 77, mean 0.007, P95 0.015; complete meals for infants and young children N=16, % <LOD/LOQ 44, mean 0.010, P95 0.041.
• Cadmium exposure, Table 5 (µg per kg body weight and day, medium bound): for 0.5 to < 3 years, high-consumer Cd intake was 0.024 for baby formula powder, 0.023 for baby formula ready to eat, 0.128 for processed cereal-based food powder, and 0.086 for processed cereal-based food ready to eat.
• Cadmium total intake, Table 6 (µg per kg body weight and day, medium bound): among consumers of processed cereal-based food in powder form, high-consumer total Cd intake was 0.159 for 0.5 to < 3 years, 0.216 for 0.5 to < 1 year, and 0.100 for 1 to < 3 years.
• Lead exposure, Table 8 (µg per kg body weight and day, medium bound): for 0.5 to < 3 years, high-consumer Pb intake was 0.085 for baby formula powder, 0.081 for baby formula ready to eat, 0.055 for processed cereal-based food powder, and 0.037 for processed cereal-based food ready to eat.
• Lead total intake, Table 9 (µg per kg body weight and day, medium bound): among consumers of baby formula ready to eat, high-consumer total Pb intake was 0.123 for 0.5 to < 3 years, 0.125 for 0.5 to < 1 year, and 0.104 for 1 to < 3 years.

Methods (brief)

BfR grouped German Federal Control Plan 2015 and Monitoring 2015 records according to EU maximum-level categories for foods for infants and young children. Values below LOD/LOQ were handled with modified lower-bound, medium-bound, and upper-bound approaches: modified lower bound set values below LOD to 0 and below LOQ to LOD, medium bound used half the relevant LOD/LOQ, and upper bound used the relevant LOD/LOQ. Consumption data came from the VELS study, which used three-day weighing records from 816 infants and young children aged 6 months to under five years in Germany. The source reports total cadmium and total lead; no speciation issue is present.

Implications

Certification (HMTc): This is A-tier regulatory and occurrence evidence for infant formula, processed cereal-based infant foods, infant rusks/biscuits, and complete infant meals in Germany/EU. It is strongest for category-level Cd and Pb distributions under explicit LOD/LOQ handling and should keep powder versus ready-to-eat categories separate.

Courses: The opinion is useful for teaching lower/medium/upper-bound censoring, the distinction between occurrence tables and exposure tables, and why regulatory maximum levels quoted in a source are not HMTc thresholds.

App: The source can support infant-food Cd/Pb context, especially formula powder, formula ready-to-eat, and processed cereal-based infant food rows, with German/EU jurisdiction metadata.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• cadmium
• lead
• baby-food
• infant-formula-powder
• infant-formula-rtf-liquid
• infant-cereal-ingredients
• infant-formula-powder
• infant-formula-powder-non-soy
• infant-formula-powder-soy-based
• infant-formula-rtf-liquid-non-soy
• infant-formula-rtf-liquid-soy-based
• infant-cereal
• baby-cereals-dry-rice-based
• baby-cereals-dry-non-rice
• infant-food-general
• snacks-crackers-biscuits
• teething-and-snacks-rice-based
• teething-and-snacks-non-rice
• mixed-meals-rice-containing
• mixed-meals-non-rice

Verification notes

• PDF text was extracted with pdftotext -layout to /tmp/mfk_june8_572.txt; the title page, assessment object, Table 1, Section 3.2.1, Tables 2-3, Table 5, Table 6, Table 8, and Table 9 were checked against this page.
• DOI 10.17590/20181205-132313-0, raw handle MFK_cadmium-in-food-scientific-opinion-reference, and candidate cite-key path wiki/sources/bfr2018-infant-food-cadmium-lead.md were checked before creation; no existing source page was found.
• Units are copied exactly as printed: occurrence values use mg per kg; exposure values use µg per kg body weight and day; percentages and MoE values are not converted.
• Speciation: the source reports cadmium and lead totals only; no iAs/tAs, MeHg/tHg, or Cr/Cr(VI) substitution issue is present.
• The source-reported EU maximum levels in Table 1 are regulatory context only. This page does not propose, justify, or compare against any HMTc threshold.
• Frontmatter slugs were checked against docs/gpt-collaboration/taxonomy-snapshot.md; matrix descriptors such as rusk-biscuits are not product or ingredient slugs.

Page history

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