80% of baby food contains dangerous chemicals

London: A new study found that a large amount of baby food products contain dangerous chemicals.

According to a report in the Independent, the test was carried out by The Clean Label Project, a non-profit organisation that advocates consumer transparency, revealed chemicals like lead, cadmium and acrylamide were found in the products.

Researchers used 530 different snacks, cereals, formulas and drinks that had been purchased in the last five months for the test. Researchers found that 65% infant products contained arsenic, 58% contained cadmium, 36% contained lead and 10% contained acrylamide out of the products analysed.

80% of infant formula samples were also found to contain arsenic, a toxin which the World Health Organisation (WHO) associates with a slew of health issues such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. While the amounts of each chemical varied with each product, some contained up to 600 parts of arsenic per billion.

Many of these were rice-based products such as crisps and "puffs". The findings also suggested that baby foods today had 70% more acrylamide than the average French fry, a chemical which has been linked to brain damage and reproductive challenges.

They also found that 60% of products with "BPA free" labels in fact tested positive for bisphenol A, an industrial chemical which is used to make plastic. They concluded their findings by identifying the top and bottom five cereals, formulas, snacks, drinks and jar meals in terms of dangerous chemical contents.