Organic baby formula containing brown rice syrup – as well as cereal/energy bars and other energy foods used by athletes – may contain higher levels of arsenic than allowed under the Environmental Protection Agency's safe drinking water limits, a new study has found.
Dartmouth researchers, reporting in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, said their study found one of 17 infant formulas tested had a total arsenic concentration of six times EPA standards of 10 parts per billion (ppb) for total arsenic. Cereal bars and high-energy foods using organic brown rice syrup also had higher arsenic concentrations than those without the syrup.
“There is an urgent need for regulatory limits on arsenic in food," said the researchers, who did not identify the products by name, in a release issued with the study.
To reach their conclusions, the researchers purchased commercial food products containing organic brown rice syrup and compared them with similar products that didn't contain the syrup. Seventeen infant formulas, 29 cereal bars, and 3 energy "shots" were all purchased from local stores in the Hanover, N.H., area.
Of the 17 infant milk formulas tested, two formulas contained more than 20 times the arsenic in the other formulas. Twenty of the 29 cereal bars and all three types of an energy gel tested contained arsenic.
Lead researcher Brian Jackson, director of the Trace Element Analysis Core Facility at Dartmouth, said many consumers may not know such products – labeled organic – may actually contain arsenic.