Estimation of weekly intake of cadmium and lead by consumption of commercial ready-to-feed infant foods

The purpose of this survey was to estimate the safety of ready-to-eat infant foods in terms of Pb and Cd content. The studied samples were ready-to-eat infant products: dinners (n=74), soups (n=27) and desserts (n=82) containing components of animal origin: meat and/or milk. Cd and Pb content was determined using a GF-AAS method. The analysed products contained 1.82-3.54 mu g Pb and 1.32-1.50 mu g Cd per kg. The content of Pb per kg of the product can be represented as dinners >soups >desserts, whereas the content of Cd was dinners >desserts >soups. The analysed ready-to-eat products could be regarded as safe, because they supply 12-month-old infants with Pb in an amount accounting for nearly 22% BMDL01 and Cd accounting for ca. 8.6% of the total weekly intake.