Overview
This conference proceedings paper reviews eleven studies on metals in pureed baby foods and surveys the labels of fish-based purees sold by five large Spanish supermarket chains. Fish-based purees were only about 12 to 13 percent of the pureed baby food range and contained about 8 percent fish, mostly hake. In the reviewed studies, fish-based purees had the highest average arsenic and mercury of the four categories (fish, meat, vegetable, fruit). No samples were analyzed by the authors.
Key numbers
- Averages of other studies for fish-based purees: arsenic about 0.2735 mg/kg and mercury about 0.0084 mg/kg (n = 2 studies each), wet weight (Section 3.2, p. 5). These are second-hand values.
- Rice appeared in 65 percent, carrots in 70 percent and potatoes in 80 percent of fish-based purees on the Spanish market (Figure 2, p. 4).
Methods (brief)
Scoping review following PRISMA-ScR, Web of Science search in April 2025 covering 2018-2025, with arithmetic means of the reported study means per category. A separate label survey of fish-based purees was compiled online and checked in stores in February 2025.
Evidence Fitness
Context only. It is a short proceedings paper, review status not stated, and every concentration is a quote or an average of other papers, so none is recorded as a finding. Its averages mix total arsenic with limits that apply to inorganic arsenic, as the authors note. Useful as a market-structure note for fish-containing baby foods (low fish share, frequent rice, carrot and potato co-ingredients).