[Lead and cadmium content of baby food and their nutritional hygienic-toxicological significance].

Little is known of the amounts of lead and cadmium which the infantile organism takes up from the total diet. The author's analyses of more than 150 jars or packs of ready-to-use baby food produced in the German Democratic Republic (trade mark: Für's Kind) revealed lead contents of less than 100 mug/kg and cadmium contents of less than 10 mug/kg. Only spinach showed higher lead values. In liver -containing ready-to-use foods the cadmium contents were higher than 10 mug/kg (25-50 mug/kg). Like liquid milk, powdered milk-base foods contained no cadmium. From these values it was calculated that the daily lead and cadmium intake of an infant during his first year of life amounts to 42-47 mug of lead and to 6,4-11,5 mug of cadmium, respectively. A conversion to mg/kg of body weight shows that, in both cases, the load on an infant equals that on an adult or is even greater. Literature data lead intake are in good agreement with these results. Corresponding studies for cadmium are not known.