Summary
This peer-reviewed CASCADE project study measured ten elements in designed European infant-formula and solid-food/beverage market baskets. It is relevant to Category 1 because it distinguishes milk-based, soy-based, and hypoallergenic infant formula baskets and reports higher element levels in soy-based infant formulae, but its pooled-basket design means it does not provide brand-level or sample-level percentiles.
Study Scope
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Product scope | Infant formulae and commercial solid foods/beverages for non-breast-fed infants through 9 months |
| EU infant formula basket | 42 infant formula products from six countries: France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, and UK |
| EU solid foods and beverages basket | 22 products from five countries: Germany, Italy, France, Spain, and UK |
| National infant formula baskets | 24 products from Italy, Spain, Slovakia, and Sweden |
| National SFB5 baskets | 13 solid food products representing fifth-month diets in Italy, Spain, Slovakia, and Sweden |
| Basket design | Pooled market baskets weighted by market share or energy contribution to infant diet |
| Analytical methods | ICP-AES for Ca, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Se, Zn; ICP-sf-MS for Pb, Hg, Cd |
| Important unit note | Table 3 unit labels were checked against the rendered PDF image on 2026-05-07. Cd, Hg, Pb, and Se are reported as ug/kg fw; Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, and Zn as mg/kg fw; Ca as g/kg fw. Structured evidence rows normalize these source units deterministically to ppb while preserving the source unit in source-page tables and structured evidence notes. |
EU Basket Formula Concentration Findings
Trace element units are preserved from Table 3 as extracted below. For structured evidence, the Table 3 PDF image was checked and units were normalized deterministically to ppb. These values should still be treated as pooled-basket concentrations, not individual-product distributions.
| Analyte | Starting milk formula | Starting soy formula | Starting hypoallergenic formula | Follow-on milk formula | Follow-on soy formula | Follow-on hypoallergenic formula | Table |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cadmium | 3.3 | 15.8 | 4.2 | 4.5 | 18.3 | 3.9 | Table 3 |
| Total mercury | <0.5 | <0.5 | <0.5 | 113 | 29.3 | 14.4 | Table 3 |
| Nickel | <0.5 | <0.5 | <0.5 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 0.1 | Table 3 |
| Lead | 8.2 | 30.5 | 13.2 | 43.9 | 20.1 | 9.3 | Table 3 |
EU Basket Solid Food And Beverage Findings
| Analyte | SFB5 | SFB6 | SFB7 | SFB8 | SFB9 | Table |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cadmium | 2.8 | 8.3 | 9.6 | 9.5 | 9.1 | Table 3 |
| Total mercury | 2.7 | 3.0 | 4.5 | 29.9 | 5.9 | Table 3 |
| Nickel | <0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | Table 3 |
| Lead | 7.9 | 8.7 | 8.3 | 17.2 | 11.0 | Table 3 |
Intake Findings
| Finding | Value | Table/section |
|---|---|---|
| EU basket cadmium intake from milk infant formula, 0 to 1 month | 0.6, unit extracted as mg/kg bw/week but likely microgram-scale in source context | Table 4 |
| EU basket cadmium intake from soy infant formula, 0 to 1 month | 2.8, same unit caveat | Table 4 |
| EU basket cadmium intake from SFB, 5 to 9 months | 3.2 to 4.9 across SFB6 to SFB9, same unit caveat | Table 4 |
| EU basket lead intake from SFB, 5 to 9 months | 3.3 to 8.5 across SFB6 to SFB9, same unit caveat | Table 4 |
| EU basket mercury intake from follow-on milk formula, 4 to 5 months | 10.2, same unit caveat | Table 4 and conclusion |
| Worst-case mercury exposure in scenario combining follow-on milk formula and fish-based commercial infant solid foods | 18.2, same unit caveat | Section 3.4.9 |
Interpretation Notes
The authors conclude that essential and non-essential element levels in starting soy-based infant formulae were higher than values in milk-based or hypoallergenic powder formulations. They also report elevated mercury and lead in the designed follow-on milk formula sample. Cadmium exposure during the weaning period exceeded EFSA’s cadmium TWI in many scenarios and nearly attained the JECFA PTWI.
Distribution Limits
This source is a pooled market-basket study. It is useful for formula-type comparisons and exposure modeling, but it cannot provide p10, p90, p95, or p100 values for individual products. The source should be used as basket evidence, not as a finished-product market distribution.
Limitations
The extracted text has unit-symbol OCR ambiguity, with microgram symbols often rendered as m; Table 3 unit labels were therefore checked against the PDF image before structured normalization. The study uses pooled baskets weighted by market share or diet contribution, so sample-level variability is not available.
Implications
- Certification: Useful A-tier evidence for soy-versus-milk formula contrast and EU infant-food basket exposure, but not for percentile calculations.
- Courses: Useful example of why market-basket studies and product-distribution studies must be kept separate.
- App: Supports formula-type and weaning-stage risk features after unit normalization.
- Microbiome: No direct microbiome endpoint.
Wiki pages updated on ingest
- Infant Formula, Powder (Non-Soy)
- Infant Formula, Powder (Soy-Based)
- Infant Formula, RTF Liquid (Non-Soy)
- Infant Formula, RTF Liquid (Soy-Based)
- Fruit Purees
- Root-Vegetable Purees
- Non-Root Vegetable Purees
- Mixed Meals, Non-Rice
- Mixed Meals, Rice-Containing
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 | 11 sections added; narrative text revised |