All samples were purchased at retail from grocery stores as they would normally be purchased by consumers. Samples were made of a composite of 24, 2.5 ounce jars, or 12, 4.5 ounce jars identified with the same production code. This produced three distinct and uniform samples from three major metropolitan areas, for each food tested. Pure plum products, however, are all marketed exclusively at the second level of baby foods, for infants older than six months. Strained bananas, the most popular beginners baby food, was excluded from our testing because data from the FDA and other independent sources indicate relatively low pesticide residues.
Apples are the most widely used product in baby foods, followed by bananas and peaches.
Vegetables Sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, peas and carrots are the only vegetable baby foods sold by the big three in the beginners foods category. These five vegetables are ingredients in 113 products sold in all stages of baby food marketed by these three companies. We sampled sweet potatoes, squash and green beans from each of the producers' beginners foods category. In order to stay within budget and include peas and carrots in our sampling plan we chose garden vegetables which contains peas, water, carrots and spinach, from one company, and carrots and peas from another. Because the third company does not make a product with both of these ingredients, we combined their beginners and older pea and carrot products in equal portions to create our test sample.