“There's been a lot of concern about this since a 2021 Congressional report looking at heavy metals found in baby foods,” Cilenti points out, referring to heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic, cadmium and lead. “To take a step back, these are metals found in the environment primarily due to contamination from pollution, but they eventually find their way into the soil and water, where they're absorbed into plants. The heavy metals can come along when we process those plants into baby food.” The baby foods that absorb more of these contaminants include rice cereals and root vegetables. “Unfortunately, this isn't limited to baby food but to foods that we buy and then process into baby foods on our own,” Cilenti adds. Her advice for avoiding heavy metal contamination in baby’s diet is to ensure baby eats a wide variety of food.