In May 2012, the US-based firm announced that it was stepping-up its efforts to minimise the presence of arsenic in its products. This followed the publication of a report, which suggested that arsenic levels in some Natures’s One infant formula products were a cause for concern.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established a maximum safe limit for arsenic in drinking water at 10 parts per billion. There are, however, no US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations that define permissible levels of arsenic in food.
The technology filters environmental arsenic in OBRS to undetectable levels at testing limits of less than 4 parts per billion. All infant formula products produced by the firm since February 2012 have benefitted from use of the new filtration system, the company revealed.
Significant resources
Nature’s One spokeswoman Karla Highman told DairyReporter.com that following its technological advancement, the firm suspects that its formulas contain the purest OBRS in the food industry.
“Nature’s One has dedicated significant resources to reducing arsenic levels in OBRS in terms of manpower and financial commitment,” said Highman.
“Our company was founded on the principle of ensuring our products are formulated with the purest ingredients possible. Nature’s One’s mission is to make organic better.”
“Our advanced filtering technology has reduced arsenic levels in Baby’s Only Organic formulas to levels 98% below proposed world standards for safe levels of arsenic in rice-based foods for infants.”
Since 2009, the firm tested its products for arsenic using the most modern methods. Until recently, no arsenic was detected.
“Technology has recently improved where we can now measure arsenic to atomic levels,” Highman added. “With this advancement, Nature’s One has dedicated its science team in the past four months to pursue arsenic with successful results of undetectable arsenic levels in organic brown rice syrup at testing levels of less than 4 parts per billion.”
“We are unaware of any other advancement made toward the reduction of arsenic levels in OBRS and suspect that our formulas contain the purest OBRS in the food industry.”
Industry challenge
The firm has now challenged other infant formula and baby food manufacturers to do their part in eliminating harmful environmental pollutants from their ingredients and products.
“Nature’s One is the first US company to offer organic baby formula. Now we’re the first formula manufacturer worldwide to eliminate environmental contaminants like arsenic from our organic ingredients,” Highman said.
“Nature’s One challenges other infant formula and baby food manufacturers to begin testing for and eliminating potentially harmful environmental pollutants from their ingredients, as well.”
Nature’s One worked with a team of experts to develop the patent-pending organic-compliant filtering technology, which is capable of extracting heavy metals such as arsenic from OBRS.
