Toledo et al. 2024 - Essential and toxic elements in infant cereal, Brazil

Toledo et al. (2024) used published concentration data from Pedron et al. to assess cancer and non-cancer risk from essential and toxic elements in Brazilian infant cereals. The occurrence dataset covers 18 infant-cereal samples bought in 2014-2015 across several Brazilian jurisdictions, with three source groupings: rice cereal, multi-grain cereal containing rice, and non-rice-based cereal. The paper’s added contribution is the deterministic exposure and risk assessment for infants and toddlers aged 4 to <24 months.

Key numbers

Source dataset and analytes:

The paper reports total concentrations for Ag, Al, As, B, Ba, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Se, Sr, Zn, Ni, Cd, and Pb in Table 3. It also discusses arsenic as total arsenic (tAs) for the full 18-sample set and as inorganic arsenic (iAs) only through source-side speciation assumptions.

Source-reported total arsenic means by cereal grouping:

Regulatory-comparator outcomes reported by the source:

Selected cancer-risk outputs:

Selected non-cancer-risk outputs:

The sample-level Table 3 extraction for five structured-extraction analytes (tAs, Al, Ni, Cd, Pb) is retained at data/evidence/category1_toledo2024_infant_cereal_brazil_samples.csv; the source page does not use that extraction as an independent study count.

Methods

Toledo et al. used a deterministic risk-assessment framework with hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, and risk characterization. Exposure was modeled for two age groups: 4 to <12 months and 12 to <24 months.

Risk inputs in Table 1:

The concentration data came from 18 infant-cereal samples reported by Pedron et al. The source states that total concentrations of 22 elements were determined by ICP-MS and that arsenic speciation used HPLC coupled to the mass spectrometer. For the risk assessment, the authors selected elements with available slope factors or reference doses from IARC, US EPA, OEHHA, ATSDR, FAO, and related agencies. Cancer risk was calculated for iAs and Pb only because those were the two agents with available slope factors in the authors’ framework.

Speciation and methods caveats

• The full sample set reports total arsenic, not measured sample-by-sample iAs. One Brazilian rice-cereal sample had iAs speciation; the authors cite that iAs was approximately 40% of tAs in that sample.
• The authors present a conservative scenario where iAs is 100% of tAs, and a lower scenario where iAs is 52% of tAs based on cited infant-cereal literature.
• Chromium is total Cr only; the paper does not report Cr-VI.
• Al, Cd, and Ni were not included in the cancer-risk calculation because the authors did not have cancer slope factors for those elements.
• The Pb reference dose was calculated from a provisional tolerable weekly intake that the source notes had been withdrawn; the authors therefore caution that no Pb exposure level is currently considered safe.
• The concentration data were originally generated by Pedron et al.; Toledo et al. is the risk-assessment integration paper and should not be double-counted as an independent concentration survey if Pedron et al. is separately ingested.

Implications

Standards work: This source provides Brazilian-market infant-cereal occurrence context and risk-model outputs for rice-based and non-rice dry baby-cereal pages. Its strongest source-specific signal is the contrast between rice-containing cereals and non-rice cereals for total arsenic and modeled iAs risk, with Cd and Pb retained as secondary toxic-element comparators.

Courses: The paper is useful for teaching how speciation assumptions move arsenic risk estimates. The same tAs table can support materially different iAs risk scenarios depending on whether the model assumes 100%, 52%, or another fraction of total arsenic is inorganic.

App: The Table 3 sample extraction can support jurisdiction-labeled Brazilian occurrence context for baby-cereal displays, but it should be labeled as Brazilian-market data acquired in 2014-2015 and as a small sample set.

Wiki pages updated on ingest

• arsenic-total
• arsenic-inorganic
• aluminum
• cadmium
• lead
• nickel
• rice
• corn
• oat
• wheat
• non-rice-grains
• infant-cereal-ingredients
• baby-cereals-dry-rice-based
• baby-cereals-dry-non-rice
• fda-iAs-rice-cereal-100ppb
• fda-closer-to-zero

Verification notes

• Merge-enhanced 2026-05-18 from the full manual-fetch PDF path and SHA-256 recorded in frontmatter, while retaining the earlier JATS and sample-extraction paths.
• Fresh-context audit (Codex, 2026-05-18) caught an ambiguous 52% iAs non-cancer-risk row; clarified that the unchanged HQ count refers to the source’s iAs sensitivity scenario and the authors’ 10-sample risk statement, not the overall 18-of-18 all-element count.
• Removed the unsupported Sn frontmatter metal from the older page; tin appears in the Brazilian infant-food regulation background but was not one of the paper’s reported infant-cereal concentration analytes.
• Replaced older cross-study HMTc comparison prose with source-only risk-assessment results to preserve the wiki/HMTc firewall.
• Strict brand-firewall check: the source says the 18 samples came from eight brands, but this page does not name or rank any sampled brand.

Page history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page. 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.