Some veggie puffs contain high levels of lead, Consumer Reports finds

Some vegetarian puff pastries made by Lesser Evil and Serenity Kids contain worrying levels of lead, a heavy metal linked to developmental disabilities and other disabilities in children, according to findings released Wednesday by Consumer Reports.

Parents may see veggie puffs, marketed as a healthy alternative to sugar-laden snacks, as a way to make foods like beets, carrots, potatoes and tomatoes palatable to children. But certain cassava-based brands contain excessive amounts of lead or other heavy metals, making even a single serving of a product unhealthy, the advocacy group warned.

Problematic lead levels were found in both Lesser Evil puff products tested and one from Serenity Kids, Consumer Reports found. Lesser Evil’s Lil’ Puffs Intergalactic Voyager Veggie Blend puffs had more lead per serving than any of the 80 baby foods the watchdog has tested since 2017, the group noted.

“We think children should consume less than half a serving of these foods daily,” James E. Rogers, head of food safety testing at Consumer Reports, said in a statement.

As for the other two puff products that were found to have high levels of lead – Lesser Evil’s Lil’ Puffs Sweet Potato Apple Asteroid and Serenity Kids’ Tomato & Herb Bone Broth – Consumer Reports recommends limiting consumption to 1.5 servings per day.

Pastries and other snacks made with rice may be high in arsenic, previous Consumer Reports tests have found. This has led some manufacturers to use other starches, such as cassava root or sorghum, a gluten-free grain.

Consumer Reports found very low levels of lead in two sorghum-based products from Once Upon a Farm, a company co-founded by actress Jennifer Garner. The company’s snacks also produced some of the lowest lead levels of all baby foods tested by Consumer Reports, it noted.

“Clearly some manufacturers need to do a better job of keeping heavy metals out of their snack foods, and there may be some specific concerns about foods made with cassava,” Rogers said.

Parents who have given their children cassava puffs should not panic, but rather be aware that the amounts Consumer Reports found may, over time, increase the risk of developmental problems such as lower IQ, ADHD and autism.

“You need to take into account the fact that small amounts of lead can accumulate and that children may be exposed to some lead in drinking water or the environment,” Rogers said. “This is why foods with higher lead levels should be minimized in children’s diets.”

Lesser Evil said all of its products meet regulatory requirements. “Lesser Evil was built on the mission of creating better, cleaner, more natural products than the highly processed, refined snacks that have occupied grocery store shelves for years,” the company told CBS MoneyWatch in a statement.

The company’s products “meet GRAS (generally recognized as safe) standards and federal regulations for organic products,” Lesser Evil said, adding that “we conduct extensive testing for all Lesser Evil products that comply with California Proposition 65 and federal standards.”

Sami Rosnov, chief operating officer of Corner Market Communications, which represents Lesser Evil, told Consumer Reports that lead occurs in nature “due to years of pollution and contamination in our water and soil.”

Serenity Kids also defended the company’s products, including its testing and quality assurance practices.

“Our puffs are and have always been safe for consumption. All of our products test well below the maximum allowable dose levels (MADLs) established by California Proposition 65,” the company said in a statement.

“We always address lead and all heavy metals because we are confident in the safety of our products and ingredients and because we believe our products are healthier than alternatives that exist today,” the company added.

In a statement, Once Upon a Farm also noted that heavy metals occur naturally in the environment, making them “virtually impossible” to avoid. “Our standard is to minimize its presence to consumable levels in all of our products,” the company told CBS MoneyWatch.

Once Upon a Farm said it also seeks to reduce heavy metals in its products by using organic ingredients from global regions that have taken steps to reduce risks and testing for materials most likely to contain metals. Emily Luna, baby brand manager at Once Upon a Farm, also said the company chose sorghum for its puffs in part because it’s less likely to contain heavy metals than rice or cassava.

The findings follow the release of separate results in April in which Consumer Reports found that Lunchables, another popular children’s food product, contains problematic levels of lead and sodium.

“Food classification should be based on scientific evidence that includes an assessment of the nutritional value of the entire product, not restricted to one element such as a single ingredient or the level of processing,” said a Kraft Heinz spokesperson in defending the 35 year mark.

A 2021 government report found that baby food made by several of the country’s largest manufacturers had “significant levels“of substances including lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury, leading the FDA to propose limits on arseniclead and mercury in baby food.