FSA 2014 - metals in UK infant foods, formula and other infant-diet foods

The UK Food Standards Agency commissioned a survey of metals and other elements in ready-to-feed infant formula, dry infant formula, commercial infant foods, and other foods consumed by infants and young children. The report is A-tier occurrence and exposure evidence for infant foods because it gives category mean concentrations and total infant-diet exposure estimates. Brand-name products were measured, but the report calculates exposure by category and food group; this page follows that firewall.

Key numbers

• Sample frame: 47 infant formula samples, 200 commercial infant foods, and 50 composite samples of other foods were purchased from UK retail outlets during 2013 and 2014.
• Product basis: all samples were prepared and tested as sold; dry powdered infant formula and dried cereal products such as baby rice were not reconstituted before testing.
• Analytes: aluminum, antimony, total arsenic, inorganic arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, iodine, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, selenium, tin, and zinc were assessed by ICP-MS.
• Ready-to-feed infant formula concentrations used for exposure (µg/l): first milk Al 18-34, tAs 0-0.3, iAs 0-0.2, Pb 0-0.4, Hg 0-0.2, Zn 5974; follow-on milk Al 15-31, tAs 0-0.4, iAs 0-0.3, Pb 0-0.5, Hg 0-0.2, Zn 5608.
• Dry powder formula concentrations (µg/kg, as sold): first milk/hungrier milk Al 388-488, tAs 1-3, iAs 0.7-1.8, Cd 3-4, Pb 1-4, Hg 0-1, Ni 18-54, Sn 0-23, Zn 40388.
• Soy-based dry formula concentrations (µg/kg, as sold): Al 2550, tAs 7, iAs 4.6, Cd 11, Cr 35-55, Pb 0-5, Mn 2785, Hg 0-1, Ni 200, Se 147, Sn 0-23, Zn 46000.
• Commercial infant foods: snacks had Al 5185 µg/kg, tAs 98 µg/kg, iAs 58-62 µg/kg, Cd 24 µg/kg, Pb 10 µg/kg, Mn 18125 µg/kg, Ni 292 µg/kg, and Zn 12180 µg/kg.
• Commercial infant foods: meat and fish based foods/dishes had Al 1425-1427 µg/kg, tAs 15 µg/kg, iAs 2-4 µg/kg, Cd 9 µg/kg, Pb 4-5 µg/kg, Hg 0-1 µg/kg, Sn 47-52 µg/kg, and Zn 5190 µg/kg.
• Other-food fish composite: tAs 1730 µg/kg, iAs 0-10 µg/kg, Cd 11-12 µg/kg, Hg 56 µg/kg, Se 353 µg/kg, and Sn 17-23 µg/kg.
• Total infant-diet mean/high-level exposure: Al 33-34 / 74-76 µg/kg bw/day; tAs 0.91-0.94 / 4.3-4.4; iAs 0.14-0.18 / 0.41-0.47; Cd 0.25-0.27 / 0.57-0.59; Pb 0.071-0.12 / 0.17-0.26; tHg assumed as methylmercury for exposure 0.022-0.046 / 0.13-0.16.
• Total infant-diet mean/high-level exposure continued: total Cr 0.59-1.0 / 1.7-2.5 µg/kg bw/day; Ni 1.6-2.6 / 3.9-5.6; Sn 38 / 250; Zn 440 / 860.
• Inorganic arsenic exposure generated MOEs of 20 for mean consumers and 6-7 for high-level consumers, rounded to one significant figure.
• The report states all samples were compliant with food safety legislation; the 0.10 mg/kg maximum limit for inorganic arsenic in rice used to produce foods for infants and young children applied from 1st January 2016, after these samples were collected.

Methods (brief)

Hallmark Meat Hygiene purchased formulae, commercial infant foods, and other foods from UK retail outlets. Multi-element analysis used ICP-MS. Category mean concentrations were calculated from brand-name products, but dietary exposures were calculated on food-category and food-group bases using DNSIYC consumption data and lower-/upper-bound assumptions for censored values.

Implications

Certification (HMTc): This source contributes A-tier UK infant-food and formula occurrence evidence, including tAs and iAs kept separate. Powder formula values are as sold, not reconstituted; ready-to-feed formula is in µg/l.

Courses: The report is a concrete example of how infant-food risk assessment depends on product form, reconstitution basis, censored data, and arsenic speciation assumptions.

App: The source can support infant formula, baby cereal, baby snacks, fruit/meat/fish baby foods, and other infant-diet food profiles while suppressing brand-specific results.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• infant-formula-powder
• infant-formula-powder-soy-based
• infant-formula-rtf-liquid-non-soy
• infant-food-general
• baby-food
• infant-cereal
• fish-containing-baby-foods
• fruit-purees
• bread-and-baked-goods
• arsenic-total
• arsenic-inorganic
• cadmium
• lead
• mercury-total
• tin

Verification notes

• PDF text was extracted with pdftotext -layout to /tmp/hmi_row_1459.txt; the executive summary, sampling plan, Annex 1 Tables 1-5, and exposure/risk sections were re-read before writing.
• Identity checks before creation: title phrase, raw handle MFK_fsa-2014-infant-foods-metals, raw SHA-256 7855edeb89e7ddd2db854ddd71e6de833299e7c3abaa1ac51e63cab0ffb84e09, and cite key fsa2014-infant-foods-metals were searched in wiki/sources/; no existing source page was found.
• Units and basis are preserved: ready-to-feed formula values use µg/l, dry formula and foods use µg/kg, and exposure estimates use µg/kg bw/day. Powder formula and dried cereal products are as sold, not reconstituted.
• Speciation: total arsenic and inorganic arsenic are separated. Chromium is total Cr assumed by the source to be Cr(III) for exposure; no Cr(VI) values are inferred. Mercury exposure is total mercury assumed as methylmercury by the source for risk assessment, but this page labels product occurrence as tHg.
• Brand firewall: the report measured brand-name products, but this page records only category/group values and no brand-by-value table.

Page history

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