Healthy World: Arsenic in Some Foods

After passing through the red, yellow, and green produce department, choosing carefully only among the organic options, some health-conscious shoppers will also look for the gluten-free, organic, and other health-minded labels on their other food choices. There may be a sense of false security in those labels though.
The biggest two grocery store offenders tested? Baby formula and energy bars. As if avoiding processed foods isn't enough, now you may want to pay even more attention to the labels in your cart.

Whether it be for general health, or for special dietary needs, it is important to pay attention to research findings. After a recent study conducted at Dartmouth University, you may want to think twice about trusting the “organic” and “gluten-free” labels, in place of also reading specific ingredients.

The Trace Element Analysis Core Facility at Dartmouth has found that brown rice syrup (which has been used in organic foods, because it has been considered a healthier replacement for high fructose corn syrup) could potentially pose an entirely new set of concerns.

Brown rice easily absorbs harmful levels of inorganic arsenic (it has one of the highest absorption rates amongst all grains), which was used in pesticides until 2009 when the EPA banned it.

Unfortunately, it also stays in soil for long periods of time, leaching trace amounts into plants until it no longer remains. This inorganic arsenic has long-term impact on brain function and is also a proven carcinogen.

The levels of arsenic found in one brand of tested organic baby formula (using brown rice as the primary sweetener) had as much as “six times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) safe drinking water limit of 10 parts per billion (ppb) for total arsenic,” according to the Dartmouth program director, professor Brian Jackson. This is based on the highest allowable level for an adult, not to mention levels allowed for an infant, where this is likely their only nutritional source.

Other foods found with alarming levels of arsenic (most specifically, those derived from the brown rice syrup) include cereal and energy bars, and high-energy foods sought out by endurance athletes. The study included nearly 50 samples, but refused to reveal which brands were tested, and which were found with "unsafe" arsenic levels.


They only published in the study findings “that there is an urgent need for regulatory limits on As [Arsenic] in food,” since the current limits are only placed on drinking water.

Is it just me, or is it beyond unnerving that the specific brands aren't being called out here?

 At-A-Glance:
Baby formula
Cereal/energy bars
Energy shots