Lead Safe Mama Lab Testing: Little Spoon Baby Blends & Melts
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Thursday - September 26, 2024
Hey all! Yesterday the baby food company Little Spoon made this announcement about testing for metals (the image shared with this campaign). Interestingly enough this coincided with our order of Little Spoon products being shipped to us - and delivered today.
A mama in the Lead Safe Mama community sponsored the cost of testing and reporting for a single Little Spoon baby food product - however because this company has a subscription model for purchasing - there is a minimum order. We ordered 7 products total to be delivered today (not aware of their upcoming announcement about toxicity testing) - and they also threw in samples for two of their other snack products. So today in the mail we received a total of NINE separate products from this company:
Instead of just testing and reporting on the single product that was sponsored by the mama who contacted us initially about this brand - we would love to test ALL NINE of the products that we were sent in today's shipment (especially in light of the company's announcement about their heavy metals testing - you can see screenshots from their marketing materials on the Lead Safe Mama Instagram page - or check out the Little Spoon website directly). Note - their testing thresholds are not stringent enough to be protective of children's health - but it is great that they are testing - and it is great that they are testing down to double digit parts per billion.
NOTE: With the lab network we are using there is some fluctuation in the low threshold of detection for the testing we are doing - but the highest low threshold of detection for our current rounds of testing is 10 ppb. Little Spoon has announced that their low thresholds are:
20 ppb Arsenic
40 ppb Cadmium and
20 ppb Lead and
10 ppb Mercury
ALL TOO HIGH!
We will be able to determine at least (with this round of testing) if these products test above 10 ppb for any of these metals (so more stringent testing standards for Lead, Arsenic and Cadmium - but not necessarily for Mercury). Note: we are looking for other labs that will test to a lower threshold of detection and will test again for any products that come back as a full "non-detect" (non-detect below 10 ppb for all four metals tested).
This fundraiser is to cover the cost of testing these 8 additional products. As 6 of these are refrigerated products we would love to send these in right away - so please consider contributing anything to this if you can.
The Little Spoon Sweet Potato + Carrot Baby Blend is the product that was already sponsored.
Here are the products we will be testing and reporting on with funds raised from this GoFundMe campaign:
1. Little Spoon Organic Kale apple Curls with Ancient Grains (Meltable Baby Puffs)
2. Little Spoon Organic Banana Pitaya Rings with Ancient Grains (Meltable Baby Puffs)
3. Little Spoon Golden Beet & Broccoli Baby Blend
4. Little Spoon Kele, Carrot + Pear Baby Blend
5. Little Spoon Butternut Squash + Blueberry Baby Blend
6. Little Spoon Banana + Pitaya Baby Blend
7. Little Spoon Purple Carrot Baby Blend
8. Little Spoon Sweet Potato Baby Blend
.......
Background:
In the interest of getting some new Lead Safe Mama, LLC Laboratory Food Testing GoFundMes launched quickly - we are publishing these fundraising campaigns without the full detailed narrative but will be adding more narrative details (including links to the published lab reports once the testing has been completed) over the coming days and weeks (via updates to this campaign).
If you are interested in learning more about the community-collaborative / community-funded laboratory food testing (testing food for the following toxicants: Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, & Arsenic) we are doing (through Lead Safe Mama, LLC - a unique, community collaborative, woman-owned, small business based in Portland, Oregon - a small business with a focus on childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety) - please check out some of our other GoFundMe campaigns, which have all of the details - including a detailed budget for how the funds will be spent for each food we are raising money to test.
Here's a link to an article from Consumer Reports Magazine - an article that discusses some collaborative follow up we worked on with CR in response to some of the early food testing done by Lead Safe Mama, LLC: https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/lesser-evil-serenity-kids-cassava-puffs-high-lead-levels-a2654657249/
You can also read more about this work on the following links:
1. Some background - this link also has the budget for the expenditure of the funds raised:
2. A spreadsheet with food testing we have completed and have in progress:
3. A landing page with links to each of the articles about completed food testing that we have published to date - including the full lab reports for each of the foods tested:
4. A landing page with links to all of the safer foods we have found with this food testing work so far (foods that have tested "non-detect" for Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, and Arsenic - with the limits of detection noted in the lab reports we have published):
Thank you!
Lead Safe Mama, LLC is NOT a 501(c)3 nonprofit - so contributions in support of this initiative (truly independent, 3rd party, laboratory testing of foods and supplements) are NOT tax-deductible gifts - but are greatly appreciated!
Organizer
Tamara Rubin
Organizer
Portland, OR