Clinical Pharmacist and Master’s student in Clinical Pharmacy with research interests in pharmacovigilance, behavioral interventions in mental health, and AI applications in clinical decision support. Experience includes digital health research with Bloomsbury Health (London) and pharmacovigilance practice in patient support programs. Published work covers drug awareness among healthcare providers, postpartum depression management, and patient safety reporting. 
Clinical Pharmacist and Master’s student in Clinical Pharmacy with research interests in pharmacovigilance, behavioral interventions in mental health, and AI applications in clinical decision support. Experience includes digital health research with Bloomsbury Health (London) and pharmacovigilance practice in patient support programs. Published work covers drug awareness among healthcare providers, postpartum depression management, and patient safety reporting. What was studied
This paper evaluated rice based baby food Heavy metal risk by measuring both toxic and essential elements in rice-based products marketed for infants and toddlers, then translating those measurements into a multi–life-stage, probabilistic exposure and risk assessment relevant to early life feeding patterns. The authors focused on three product categories that commonly rely on rice ingredients: infant formula, rice baby cereals, and rice snacks. Using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), they quantified elemental concentrations and compared profiles across product types and country of manufacture (United States versus China versus other countries). The risk work paired measured concentrations with modeled intake across life stages to estimate dietary exposures and characterize non-cancer risk using hazard quotients (HQ) and cancer risk using lifetime carcinogenic risk metrics, with particular attention to arsenic because rice-based foods are a well-known exposure pathway. The intent was explicitly practical: determine whether typical consumption of these rice-based products could pose unacceptable health risks and identify which product types and elements should be prioritized for monitoring and mitigation in programs that certify low heavy metal products.
Who was studied
No human participants were enrolled; instead, the “subjects” were 33 commercially available rice-based baby food products tested as representative items consumed by infants and toddlers. The sample set included 2 infant formulas, 11 rice baby cereals, and 20 rice snacks, with products produced primarily in the United States, China, and other countries. This product-centered design matters for certification because it captures what is actually on shelves (and therefore what is plausibly entering infant diets), while still allowing the authors to model exposure across multiple developmental stages. In other words, the study connects the manufacturing and sourcing reality of rice-based baby products with probabilistic estimates of intake and risk in children, a linkage that certification programs can use to define testing panels, set pass/fail thresholds, and prioritize higher-risk categories such as snacks and cereals.
Most important findings
For rice-based baby food heavy metal risk, the key signal is that non-cancer risk estimates were generally low (HQ <1), yet total arsenic drove an unacceptable modeled lifetime cancer risk, implying that “passing” on HQ alone can miss a critical certification-relevant hazard. Product category differences were pronounced, which supports category-specific certification criteria rather than one universal limit.
| Critical point | Details |
|---|---|
| Arsenic clustered highest in rice snacks | Rice snacks had the highest median arsenic concentration (127 μg/kg), flagging snack-style rice products as priority candidates for tighter screening and lower maximum limits. |
| Cadmium peaked in rice baby cereals | Rice baby cereals showed the highest median cadmium concentration (7 μg/kg), suggesting cereal ingredients or processing streams may be a distinct cadmium control point for manufacturers and auditors. |
| Lead was uncommon and pattern differed by origin | Only three samples from outside the USA contained lead, while USA-manufactured samples reportedly had negligible lead, indicating that certification should still test Pb routinely but interpret “country-of-origin” signals cautiously and verify with batch data. |
| Essential elements varied strongly by product type | Infant formula had higher median Se, Cu, Zn, Na, Mg, Ca, and K than cereals/snacks (iron excepted), reinforcing that HMTC-style programs should pair toxic-metal limits with guardrails that avoid inadvertently degrading essential nutrient profiles. |
| Risk characterization split: HQ vs cancer risk | While HQ <1 suggested minimal non-cancer risk overall, the lifetime carcinogenic for total arsenic exceeded 1e-04 (unacceptable range in many regulatory frameworks), making speciation controls central to any certification claim.< td> |
| Modeled intake differed by manufacturing region | The authors observed higher lifetime estimated daily intake for USA-manufactured samples than those from China/other countries, a reminder that “low” contamination is not guaranteed by origin and that consumption patterns plus concentrations jointly determine risk. |
Key implications
For rice based baby food heavy metal risk, the primary regulatory impact is that arsenic can trigger unacceptable cancer risk even when non-cancer HQ looks acceptable, so HMTC thresholds should explicitly address arsenic-driven carcinogenic risk and not rely on HQ alone. Certification requirements should emphasize ICP-MS batch testing with tighter category-specific limits for rice snacks (As) and rice cereals (Cd), plus routine Pb verification. Industry applications include ingredient sourcing controls, rice fraction selection, and process interventions to reduce arsenic and cadmium without compromising essential elements. Research gaps include limited detail on arsenic species and how cooking/serving practices shift exposure, so practical recommendations are to add arsenic speciation where feasible, increase surveillance frequency for high-risk categories, and publish lot-level compliance transparency.
Citation
Mentan MT, Nyachoti S, Godebo TR. Elemental composition of toxic and essential elements in rice-based baby foods from the United States and other countries: A probabilistic risk analysis. Food and Chemical Toxicology. 2024;188:114677.
Heavy metals are high-density elements that accumulate in the body and environment, disrupting biological processes. Lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, nickel, tin, aluminum, and chromium are of greatest concern due to persistence, bioaccumulation, and health risks, making them central to the HMTC program’s safety standards.
