HBBF report: what baby-food brands should do with a public finding

Healthy Babies Bright Futures (HBBF) has published public reports on contaminants in baby food. Those reports are part of why parents, reporters, and internal leadership still ask quality teams for a durable answer. This page is about that answer. It is not a restatement of HBBF's tables. It does not list analytes. It does not attack named brands. It does not use litigation as a headline.

If you need HBBF's findings, read HBBF. If you need a certification decision, that is a different file.

What a public report is

A public report is a snapshot produced by an organization with its own methods, sample set, and purpose. It can move a news cycle. It can move a parent search. It cannot license your on-pack mark, and it cannot discharge a statute.

Treat it as context. Do not treat it as your specification. Do not treat it as a scorecard you reprint. Do not treat it as permission to scare.

Related policy context, kept separate: FDA Closer to Zero. Related media tests: Consumer Reports tests versus a seal.

What a brand should do, without theater

1. Brief Quality, Regulatory, and Legal on what the report is and is not.
2. Check your own lot data and statutory files. Those remain yours.
3. Decide whether any SKU should also be evaluated against a published certification standard.
4. If yes, start with eligibility. If no, write down why, so the next news cycle does not reopen a blank page.
5. Do not publish an attack on a competitor. Do not upgrade a report into a health claim about your own food.

That sequence is boring on purpose. Boring is how you still have a claims file in a year.

Where a licensed mark fits

Heavy Metal Tested is an independent Paleo Foundation certification that evaluates food, supplement, and consumer products against a published standard and licenses a mark to products that meet it.

It is a certification program, not a laboratory. Testing is coordinated through a qualified independent ISO/IEC 17025 laboratory. The Heavy Metal Certified mark is licensed only to products that meet the published subcategory standard. Certification is valid one year, with annual retesting. If a product does not meet the standard, the mark is not licensed. The program does not claim that a product is safe.

A mark is a response to parent and reviewer questions that a report stirred up. It is not a rebuttal essay. A public report, a statute, or a buyer program does not mandate this certification.

See what Heavy Metal Tested certification is and communicating without overclaiming.

What not to do the week a report lands

• Do not scrape someone else's numbers onto your site.
• Do not name metals in a scare caption. This program's public content does not do that.
• Do not tell families to avoid a brand.
• Do not imply that uncertified products have been judged by this program.
• Do not promise that certification erases a public report.

The process, when a SKU is in scope: apply; coordinate testing through a qualified independent ISO/IEC 17025 laboratory; license the Heavy Metal Certified mark to products that meet the published subcategory standard; recertify annually with retesting.

FAQ

Does this page endorse or dispute HBBF? Neither. It tells brands what to do with a public report.

Should we reply SKU-by-SKU in public? Usually no. A published standard and a licensed mark are a more durable surface than a comments-thread rebuttal.

Does certification mean the report was wrong? No. Different methods, different jobs.

Does a mark mean the product is safe? No. The program does not claim that a product is safe.

How do we start? A 30-minute eligibility conversation. It is not an application and not a close.

Next step

If a public report is already in your leadership deck, book a 30-minute eligibility conversation. Bring SKUs, not a rebuttal. We will talk about a published standard and a licensed mark. Eligibility is not an application and not a close.