FDA 2016 - Infant/Toddler Foods Inorganic Arsenic
FDA’s 2016 inorganic-arsenic dataset reports sample-level iAs (with paired total arsenic, DMA, and MMA) across product categories commonly eaten by infants and toddlers. The Index routes the dataset’s sample-level subsets to the relevant locked HMTc rows: cereal-rice and multigrain-with-rice samples (n=82 combined) to baby-cereals-dry-rice-based; non-rice infant cereal (n=30, no rice ingredients) to baby-cereals-dry-non-rice; the Juice - Grape category (n=61) to fruit-juices-non-apple as grape-category context and to fruit-juice-not-canned as broader juice context. Per the corrected row-fit rule (CLAUDE.md Part 6), the rice / non-rice cereal subcategorization is exact on both matrix axis (rice-presence) and format axis (dry infant cereal as sold) because FDA’s footnotes 4-6 define each subcategory by ingredient composition.
Structured Extracts
data/evidence/category1_fda2016_infant_cereal_ias_samples.csv: sample-level iAs for FDA’sCereal - Infant/Toddler (rice)(n=76, all rice as only grain),Cereal - Infant/Toddler (multigrain)(n=6, contains rice and other grains), andCereal - Infant/Toddler (non-rice)(n=30, oats/corn/wheat/multigrain with no rice). TraceTR (x.x)values preserved as reported.data/evidence/category1_fda2016_infant_cereal_ias_summary.csv: per-row p30, p50, p90, p100 for the rice-based and non-rice cereal subcategories under the Part 19 clean/dirty subcategory framework.data/evidence/category5_grape_juice_inorganic_arsenic_samples.csv: sample-level extract for the FDAJuice - Graperows.data/evidence/category5_grape_juice_inorganic_arsenic_summary.csv: deterministic quantified-cell iAs summary rows for non-apple juice and broader not-canned fruit-juice context.
Key Numbers
Cereal subsets (Category 1)
| Scope | FDA category | n | mean iAs | p30 | p50 | p90 | p100 (max) | Source range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rice-based subcategory pool (rice + multigrain-with-rice) | Cereal - Infant/Toddler (rice) + Cereal - Infant/Toddler (multigrain) | 82 | 97.8 ppb | 90.62 ppb | 99.40 ppb | 124.90 ppb | 176 ppb | 20.8 - 176 ppb |
FDA rice subset alone (rice as only grain) | Cereal - Infant/Toddler (rice) | 76 | 103.1 ppb | 94.55 ppb | 100.50 ppb | 125.50 ppb | 176 ppb | 20.8 - 176 ppb |
FDA multigrain subset alone (rice + other grains) | Cereal - Infant/Toddler (multigrain) | 6 | 30.1 ppb | 26.40 ppb | 26.80 ppb | 39.20 ppb | 49.6 ppb | 22.2 - 49.6 ppb |
| Non-rice subcategory pool (oats/corn/wheat/multigrain with no rice) | Cereal - Infant/Toddler (non-rice) | 30 | 13.9 ppb | 7.21 ppb | 10.35 ppb | 25.71 ppb | 68.3 ppb | 3.5 - 68.3 ppb |
Computed values match FDA’s published category averages exactly (rice 103, multigrain 30.0, non-rice 13.9), confirming the sample-level extraction is faithful to the source table. p30, p50, p90, and p100 are computed by linear interpolation between sorted samples; trace TR (x.x) values are preserved as the reported numeric (FDA’s table convention for trace at value x.x).
Juice subset (Category 5)
| Scope | Source N | Quantified iAs rows | Quantified-cell p50 | Quantified-cell p90 | Quantified-cell p95 | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FDA Juice - Grape category | 61 | 58 | 11.2 ppb | 22.6 ppb | 25.6 ppb | 49.6 ppb |
FDA’s summary table reports a category average of 12.4 ppb for Juice - Grape. Three full-table rows are NS for inorganic arsenic; the generated percentile summary does not substitute total arsenic for iAs and calculates deterministic nearest-rank percentiles only from the 58 quantified inorganic-arsenic cells.
Evidence Fitness
EF-2 reconstructable A-tier sample-level evidence for the cereal subsets (rice + multigrain-with-rice; non-rice). EF-3 limited/reconstructable for the juice subset (the FDA grape category includes grape juice, white grape juice, grape blends, apple-grape blends, cranberry-grape blends, and one white-grape-peach mixed juice that FDA included in grape calculations).
Limitations
- The cereal samples were collected during FDA’s 2010-2013 surveys leading to the 2016 report; FDA has issued additional surveys since.
- Most non-rice infant cereal samples are at trace (
TR) levels; the lower-bound percentile treatment retains TR values as numeric per FDA’s convention rather than zeroing them. - The
Juice - Grapecategory includes apple-grape and white-grape-peach blends; rows must remain visible in the sample extract and not be silently treated as pure non-apple juice. - Total arsenic is paired with iAs in the underlying full-results table but is not substituted for iAs anywhere in the structured extract.
Implications
Certification: Direct A-tier sample-level iAs evidence for the rice-based and non-rice infant cereal subcategories under HMTc Category 1, sufficient to support per-analyte clean/dirty classification per Part 19. Combined with signes-pastor2016-inorganic-arsenic-rice-products-infants (CC-BY peer-reviewed iAs in baby rice and rice cereals; n=29 baby rice + 53 rice cereals), FDA 2016 brings n_a_tier to 2 for iAs in rice-based cereal under the Part 19 readiness bar. Final HMT&C value remains capped by the FDA action level of 100 ppb iAs for infant rice cereal (fda2020-inorganic-arsenic-infant-rice-cereal).
Courses: Strong example for teaching rice-vs-non-rice contamination differentials in infant foods and for the trace-value handling convention in regulatory data tables.
App: Supports rice-cereal vs non-rice-cereal differentiation in the contamination_profile cascade for the rice and non-rice ingredient pages.
Microbiome: No direct microbiome endpoint.