Lead in Children's and Baby Foods

The Environmental Law Foundation (ELF) released a report finding lead in a variety of popular fruit and juice products, including apple and grape juices, fruit cocktails, and even some baby foods.  Tests were done on 398 samples of products purchased in California.  Link to find a list of all the products tested, and you'll see whether they did or did not exceed the warning threshold (under California's Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act - ie 'Prop 65'). 

It is important to note that several organic brands are lead offenders (ex: Trader Joe's Organic Apple Juice and Santa Cruz Organic Concord Grape Juice).  So, again, please have a look through the entire list of products tested if you have any concerns.

This is disturbing.  As consumers, many of us know the importance of reading labels to find the nutritional no-no's like hydrogenated fats.  But, nowhere on our product labels will we read "lead"!  This time round I feel somewhat fortunate that our daughters are not big juice drinkers, and prefer drinking water to anything else.  But, what about the next report on toxicity in food, toys, or clothing?  I feel as if we are largely helpless when corporate greed or carelessness brings us to the results of a report such as this.  I know that there are companies out there working to produce goods in socially and environmentally conscious ways.  The trouble is, most of these companies are not the ones producing mass-marketed products that the majority of families consume. 

I will be back with a more upbeat post soon (and the giveaway winner).  Just wanted to bring this to your attention.  You can link to the full ELF report here.