At Little Étoile, we are not only committed to sourcing high quality organic ingredients from approved suppliers but we also meticulously test across a range of allergens, toxins and nutrition to ensure safe and trustworthy products for your little stars. We employ strict quality management, whereby ingredient and product quality and safety are controlled and tested throughout the entire process from farm to pouch.
We are more than just organic - we test for heavy metals
A recent US study testing 168 different brands of baby foods, found toxic heavy metals (mercury, lead, arsenic and cadmium) in 95% of the products analysed¹. What about organic? Unfortunately, you can’t trust that if a product is organic it won’t contain heavy metals, Heavy metals occur naturally in the environment and certain fruits and vegetables absorb more than others during the growing process, either through the soil or water. Studies have shown contaminations of up to 6 times the recommended limit when testing organic baby products².
“Infants are especially sensitive to toxins. This is because their organs are still developing, and their bodies are less able to detoxify.” – World Health Organization ³
This is why we have every single batch of Little Étoile Organic voluntarily tested for these heavy metal contaminants by an accredited lab in Australia. We do not release any pouch to the market until we have the results confirming that they are safe for infant consumption.
Reference
- Jane Houlihan, MSCE, and Charlotte Brody, RN, Healthy Babies Bright Future (2019). What’s in my baby’s food? A national investigation finds 95 percent of baby foods tested contain toxic chemicals that lower babies’ IQ, including arsenic and lead. Healthy Babies Bright Futures. Available at https://www.healthybabyfood.org/sites/healthybabyfoods.org/files/2019-10/BabyFoodReport_FULLREPORT_
- Brian P. Jackson et al. (2012). Arsenic, Organic Foods, and Brown Rice Syrup, Environmental Health Perspectives, volume 120, issue 5, 2012, pages 623–626, ISSN 0091-6765, doi 10.1289/ehp.1104619 on.
- Gardener H, Bowen J, Callan SP. Lead and cadmium contamination in a large sample of United States infant formulas and baby foods. Sci Total Environ. 2019;651(Pt 1):822‐827. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.09.026
World Health Organisation (2018). Childrens Health and the Environment. Available at https://www.who.int/ceh/capacity/Children_are_not_little_adults.pdf
