What to Know About Lead in Food Amid the Wanabana Recall—and How to Keep Children Safe

A worldwide recall of WanaBana apple cinnamon fruit puree, connected to scores of incidents of lead poisoning, has raised new concerns about the level of lead in food. The Food and Drug Administration is still looking into the elevated lead levels found in the applesauce pouches, which come months after the agency proposed tighter restrictions on the metal in processed baby food.

In January, the FDA issued a news release stating plans to reduce lead in foods to less than 10 parts per billion (ppb) for fruits, vegetables, yogurts, custards, and single-ingredient meats, with limits of 20 ppb for root vegetables and dry infant cereal. The FDA stated that lead has been related to a host of major health consequences in youngsters, prompting decreased restrictions.

So, how does lead get into food, and how can you reduce your exposure? Here’s what you should know.

First, here’s why lead is in your food.

Metal may enter into food in a variety of ways. First, it naturally permeates into the substances. “Lead is naturally found in the Earth’s core,” Katie Boss, a pediatric dietician at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, told Yahoo Life, adding that it can also be found in the soil in which food is grown.

“Lead in the food chain comes mostly from direct deposit from the air to plants and from livestock eating soil laced with lead as they eat the plants,” says Darin Detwiler, an associate professor of food safety at Northeastern University, to Yahoo Life. “Plants and animals can absorb lead from their environment, meaning that when these plants — such as fruits, veggies, and grains — are harvested for food and when animals are slaughtered for their meat, traces of lead remain present.”

Lead “gets into all food,” Detwiler says, but infant food might have higher levels if producers add vitamins or enzymes to it. According to a 2021 congressional study, many baby foods in the United States, including organic products, are contaminated with lead and other heavy elements such as cadmium and arsenic. “The levels found were higher than those allowed for other products, like candy and bottled water,” he informs me.

Dr. Diane Calello, executive medical director of the New Jersey Poison Control Center, tells Yahoo Life that lead can also leak into food during industrial processing or packing. “Historically, lead was found in the lining of food cans, but that was, fortunately, phased out decades ago,” explains the woman.

How much lead is “safe”?

In a perfect society, neither adults nor children would be exposed to lead. However, it can be found all across the environment. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is no known safe blood lead content. Even concentrations as low as 3.5 µg/dL (micrograms per deciliter) might cause lower intellect, behavioral disorders, and learning impairments in children.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends keeping children’s blood levels below 5 µg/dL. According to the Mayo Clinic, anything above this threshold indicates that lead levels are potentially dangerous for children. For adults, less than 10 µg/dL is considered normal. A simple blood test can determine the level of lead in the blood.

Why is lead so dangerous to newborns and young children?

According to WHO, newborns and young children absorb four to five times the amount of lead ingested as adults from any given source. According to the WHO, children tend to put things in their mouths, which increases the chance that they will ingest lead-containing or coated items such as contaminated soil, dust, or paint flakes.

“In the short term, kids would have to have a pretty high lead level to be symptomatic,” Dr. Danelle Fisher, a pediatrician and chair of pediatrics at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., says to Yahoo Life. “Kids will complain about things like abdominal pain, headaches and dizziness.” However, most children can have elevated lead levels without symptoms, which is why the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends screening children for lead exposure between the ages of 12 and 24 months.

Lead can induce neurocognitive deficits over time, resulting in reduced IQ, impaired attention, and poor academic performance, according to the CDC.

“Lead can harm the developing brain,” Calello warns. “While adults can have effects from excess lead exposure as well, the effects are more severe in children and occur at lower levels.”

How can you avoid lead-in meals for both adults and babies?

Dr. Sarah Shafer, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life that parents shouldn’t be concerned about lead in meals, but they should be aware that it exists. “Significant lead exposure in processed foods is uncommon, because of FDA monitoring and regulations regarding foods produced and imported into the U.S.,” she informs me.

Detwiler acknowledges that eliminating lead from food can be difficult. “Avoiding lead exposure from foods is rather difficult, as parents have little means of detecting or preventing its presence, beyond knowing where the product comes from and relying on certifications and declarations of lower detected lead levels,” according to him.

Still, lead is present in some foods that youngsters consume, which is why Fisher advocates being cautious about what you feed your child. “When it comes to baby food, we want variability,” she tells me. “No infant should eat just one food. You will have less lead exposure if you vary the foods your kid eats.”

Fisher recommends feeding your child a variety of cereals, fruits, veggies, protein, and dairy. “When we do that, baby is not going to have an increase in their lead level just from the food they eat,” she elaborates. “But if you’re constantly giving baby rice cereal three times a day, which can have higher degrees of lead, they will have higher exposure than if you gave it to them once a day.”

According to Detwiler, the environment is frequently the source of children’s dangerous lead exposure. The CDC specifically warns parents about the following sources:

Paint on homes built before 1978 is deteriorating or chipping.

Soil around older structures, airports, or major roadways

Drinking water from lead pipes, faucets, and plumbing fixtures.

Toys, jewels, antiques and collectibles

Specific foods, cosmetics, and traditional remedies imported from various nations

Parents engaging in employment or pursuing activities that require working with lead-based items and bringing them home

Calello emphasizes the significance of consuming a diverse diet, both for children and adults. “At this point, it’s mostly about avoiding recalled foods and trying to vary your diet,” she shares. “If one particular food has a small amount of heavy metals, eating a lot of that one food can give you a lot of that metal.”