Answers to Your Questions About Heavy Metals

Heavy metals are elements naturally found in soil and water. Fruits, vegetables and grains can absorb these elements from soil and water as they grow. This is true whether you grow foods in your own garden, buy organic at a farmer’s market, or buy packaged foods at the grocery store. Gerber farmers minimize the presence of heavy metals by:

• Using best in class practices like soil testing
• Rotating crops
• Choosing peak harvest times

This ensures crops that we use to produce our baby food are safe, tasty and nutritious.

Though heavy metals occur naturally in the environment, for years Gerber has taken proactive steps to minimize their presence in the ingredients we use and are committed to continuing these efforts. We work with our farmers to prioritize growing locations for optimal climate and soil conditions, approve fields before crops are planted based on soil testing and rotate crops according to best available science.

We test produce, water, ingredients, and our foods, including final products, to ensure we deliver on our promise to make high quality, safe baby food.

Our goal is to continually lower the presence of heavy metals in our ingredients. In addition to the farming practices we use, we’re continuing to invest in new research to help inform future improvements. For example, we’re working with public land-grant universities to conduct on-farm research to identify which types of soil and which varieties of produce may reduce uptake of heavy metals from the soil by carrots and sweet potatoes.

No – they are not. Heavy metals occur naturally in the environment. When we make our baby food, we not only use the best ingredients possible, but we also use stainless steel equipment which does not contribute any heavy metals.

We test produce, water, ingredients, and our foods, including final products, to ensure we deliver on our promise to make high quality, safe baby food.

In addition to our programs to assess and select the best ingredients, Gerber foods must pass more than 100 individual quality checks before they can be sold. These checks occur at 5 different stages – from growing through cooking and jarring. When it comes to heavy metals, we test produce, water, ingredients, and our foods–including final products—to ensure we deliver on our promise to make high quality, safe baby food.

All our testing is conducted by our ISO-accredited labs, meaning they follow international standards for analytical reliability. Our labs go even further; we partner with other outside labs to refine methods, to ensure we use the most current procedures.

We strongly support the FDA Closer to Zero Action Plan and we work collaboratively with the FDA and other stakeholders to advance this important effort to continue to further reduce the levels of heavy metals in foods eaten by infants and young children. Strong standards are good for babies, parents and our industry.  

100% of our foods meet available federal guidance (like that of the FDA), and our own strict standards. We developed these standards based on the very latest health and safety guidance from organizations like the Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, the European Food Safety Authority and the World Health Organization. In fact, we have among the strictest standards in the world.

It's important to note that nutrition experts recommend feeding a variety of nutrient dense foods like fruit, vegetables and whole grains starting around 6 months of age. This is the best way to minimize the risk of exposure to any one heavy metal in your baby’s diet.

No - making your own baby food does not reduce the potential presence of heavy metals, per a recent report by Healthy Babies, Bright Futures.

According to the FDA, “For parents who choose to make their own baby foods, it is important to know that this is not likely to reduce potential exposure to toxic elements in baby foods and may instead result in higher concentrations.” As the FDA explained, food makers have the capability to implement strategies that result in using ingredients with lower concentrations of toxic elements.” You can read the FDA’s full advice on this topic here.

At Gerber, our farmers use best-in-class practices to ensure quality ingredients and minimize the presence of any unwanted heavy metals.

We have seen the video, and it actually shows the nutrient iron. Iron is not a heavy metal. It is an essential nutrient that plays an important role in brain development.

Iron fortified infant cereal is perfectly safe and an important source of iron and many other nutrients in baby's diet. Having enough iron in baby's diet is important for healthy brain development and learning, which is why we add it to our cereals. We fortify some varieties of our cereals with electrolytic iron to help meet your baby's daily iron needs. The U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans has said infant cereal is a food that can help meet baby's dietary need for iron. You can learn more here.

No, there is no need to eliminate certain foods from your child’s diet. As nutrition experts (like those at the FDA) will attest, eliminating nutritious foods from your child’s diet to avoid metals in the food supply may result in certain nutrient deficiencies and potential poor health and nutrition outcomes. Instead, it is important to focus on serving a variety of fruits, vegetables and grains to little ones. This helps to ensure children are getting the nutrients from each food group, while minimizing exposure to heavy metals from any one food. You can read more about this advice here.

If you have questions about your baby’s health and diet, we recommend speaking with your child’s  doctor.

According to nutrition experts, like those at the FDA, feeding a variety of age-appropriate, nutrient dense foods—fruit, vegetables and whole grains—is the best way to help lower the risk of exposure to heavy metals in your baby’s diet.

In addition, parents and caregivers should include foods that are rich in iron and zinc—both nutrients which are essential to a child’s development. They can also help block absorption of heavy metals. Parents can include iron- and zinc-fortified infant cereals and baby foods containing meat as part of their child's diet to help ensure adequate intakes.

If you’re interested in learning more, you can review the FDA’s latest guidance  here.

You may see more here.