(Independent) A large amount of baby food products contain dangerous chemicals, a new study has found.
Products were revealed to include arsenic, lead, cadmium and acrylamide in a test carried out by The Clean Label Project, a non-profit organisation that advocates consumer transparency.
They used Nielsen data to analyse 530 different snacks, cereals, formulas and drinks that had been purchased in the last five months.
Out of the products analysed, researchers found that 65 percent contained arsenic, 58 percent contained cadmium, 36 percent contained lead and 10 percent contained acrylamide.
80 per cent of infant formula samples were also found to contain arsenic, a toxin which the World Health Organisation associates with a slew of health issues such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer.
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The study also found that baby foods today had 70 percent more acrylamide than the average French fry, a chemical which has been linked to brain damage and reproductive challenges.
The report named and shamed some major baby food retailers, including Enfamil, Plum Organics and Sprout, who they deemed as some of the worst offenders for containing harmful chemicals.
They also found that 60 percent of products with “BPA free” labels, in fact, tested positive for bisphenol A, an industrial chemical which is used to make plastic.
Clean Label Project concluded their findings by identifying the top and bottom five cereals, formulas, snacks, drinks and jar meals in terms of dangerous chemical contents.
Their full list can be seen here.