Overview
This government monitoring report covers the 2022 Children’s Food Project. The agency tested 108 infant cereals and infant/children’s snacks bought in Halifax for 20 elements and summarized results by category (Appendix C). Yogurts and infant formulas were tested only for drug residues and aflatoxin M1 that year. The printed copyright year is 2026; samples were collected in 2022.
Key numbers
- Snacks (n = 69): lead detected in 41, range 0.0050 to 0.196 ppm, mean of detected 0.0152 ppm; cadmium detected in 64, 0.0055 to 0.0551 ppm, mean 0.0260 ppm (Appendix C, p. 20).
- Snacks: total arsenic detected in 46, 0.0050 to 0.0895 ppm, mean 0.0205 ppm; mercury not detected in any (Appendix C).
- Infant cereals (n = 39): total arsenic 0.0058 to 0.413 ppm, mean of detected 0.0515 ppm; mercury detected in 2 (0.0052 and 0.0077 ppm) (Appendix C; p. 7).
Methods (brief)
Testing by ISO/IEC 17025 accredited contract laboratories; the analytical method and detection limits are not described. Arsenic is total arsenic only. Means are averages of detected amounts, so non-detects are excluded.
Evidence Fitness
A government survey report, not peer reviewed (results were reviewed by Health Canada). Values are category aggregates across cookies, biscuits, crackers and granola bars; no result is given for any specific cracker type, so these values are not butter cracker or graham cracker data. It is a proxy for butter-crackers and graham-crackers, and those pages are not linked. Means of detected values only overstate typical levels.