Summary
This peer-reviewed analytical study measured total arsenic and arsenic species in commercial brown-rice syrups and products containing organic brown rice syrup, including formulas. It is relevant to Category 1 because it reports arsenic findings for infant formulas without organic brown rice syrup and toddler formulas with organic brown rice syrup, but it does not isolate HMTc row 1 non-soy powdered infant formula.
Key numbers
- The study analyzed 15 infant formulas without organic brown rice syrup and 2 toddler formulas with organic brown rice syrup.
- Average total arsenic concentrations in the 15 infant formulas without organic brown rice syrup were in the range of 2 to 12 ng/g.
- Because 1 ng/g equals 1 ug/kg, the reported range corresponds to approximately 2 to 12 ppb total arsenic in formula powder.
- Organic brown rice syrup toddler formulas had arsenic concentrations more than 20 times higher than infant formulas without organic brown rice syrup.
- In reconstituted formulas with organic brown rice syrup, inorganic arsenic was reported as approximately 8 to 9 ug/L for the dairy-based toddler formula and approximately 1.5 to 2.5 times the 10 ug/L drinking-water standard for the soy-based toddler formula.
- Organic brown rice syrup formulas also contained 19 to 40 ug/L dimethylarsenate, with trace monomethylarsonate.
Methods (brief)
Formula samples were digested and analyzed for total arsenic by ICP-MS. Selected samples were extracted for arsenic speciation using dilute nitric acid and analyzed by ion chromatography coupled to ICP-MS. The authors estimated reconstituted-formula arsenic concentrations using a formula-powder-to-water preparation assumption.
Limitations
The two high-arsenic formula products were corrected by the authors to be toddler formulas, not infant formulas. The paper does not separate non-soy infant formula powder from soy-based infant formula powder for HMTc row purposes. The 2 to 12 ppb infant-formula finding is therefore useful as broad formula-powder evidence, not as a precise non-soy row distribution.
Implications
- Certification: Useful evidence for arsenic risk from rice-derived sweeteners and formula-powder contexts, but not sufficient for row-specific non-soy formula thresholds.
- Courses: Strong teaching example for why ingredient-derived arsenic can enter products that are not obviously rice-based.
- App: Supports ingredient-list flags for organic brown rice syrup and rice-derived sweeteners in formula-like products.
- Microbiome: No direct microbiome endpoint.
Wiki pages updated on ingest
Update history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and 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 | Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| a8052bb | 2026-08-09 | major | 7 sections added; narrative text revised |