Ready. Set. Food! is a Clean Label Project certified brand. Find out what this means for your family. Plus, learn how all of our Ready. Set. Food! products are tested to be sure they’re healthy and safer for baby.
At Ready. Set. Food!, we know that what isn’t in your baby’s food is just as important as the ingredients that are included. Parents like you don’t want to feed your baby a long list of ingredients you can’t pronounce, and want to steer clear of products with high levels of heavy metals, pesticides, and other contaminants.
Ready. Set. Food! is the first Clean Label Project certified allergen introduction system. Our Stage 1 and 2 Mix-Ins and Original Organic Baby Oatmeal have earned the Clean Label Project Purity Award.
Today, we’ll cover what Clean Label Project certification means, and show how all of our products are made with baby’s health and safety in mind.
How do contaminants end up in food?
Small amounts of heavy metals are naturally found in soil, and there’s no way to choose foods completely free of heavy metals. But pollution has increased the levels of heavy metals and other contaminants in most soils and waterways. Oil drilling, spraying of pesticides, and the release of pollutants into the air all cause chemical contaminants to seep into the soil and water. Eventually, these toxins and contaminants get absorbed by plants that are used for food.
Why does this matter in the baby food space?
Contaminants like heavy metals and pesticides have the potential to negatively affect people’s long-term health. And babies’ smaller sizes mean they’re more vulnerable to these contaminants’ harmful effects.
The World Health Organization, American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) all affirm how crucial the first 1000 days of life are to a child's growth and brain development.
Baby's brain and immune system are developing rapidly during this time. And the way their brain develops during this window sets up the foundations for lifelong health and well-being. So, it's especially important to minimize your baby's exposure to heavy metals like lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury, which can negatively affect brain development.
Unfortunately, even in the baby food space, the U.S. doesn't have any strict regulations on the amounts of heavy metals and other chemical contaminants in baby food.
Note: Until 2024, companies weren’t required to test their foods for most contaminants, and there was no standardized way that they had to identify the amounts of chemical contaminants their foods contained.
Although there’s still no standard nationwide regulation in place, a California law (AB 899) now requires baby food manufacturers to test for lead, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic each month in order for their products to be sold in the state.
And by 2025, companies will have to disclose the test results on their websites if they want to sell their products to Californians. Products with contaminant levels above the FDA’s suggested limits can still be sold, but manufacturers must place a warning label on these products to sell them in California.
What is Clean Label Project?
Clean Label Project is one way to help families make more informed choices about baby food, to minimize baby’s exposure to heavy metals and other contaminants.
Clean Label Project is a national nonprofit dedicated to bringing transparency to the way packaged foods and other products are labeled. It carries out this mission by testing products for toxins and chemical contaminants, such as heavy metals (like arsenic, mercury, lead, and cadmium) and pesticides. Clean Label Project then certifies which products have the lowest levels of these contaminants, so it’s one way to help families identify packaged foods with low contaminant levels.
Ready. Set. Food! is a Clean Label Project certified brand. In addition to the tests we already run ourselves, we’ve asked Clean Label Project to test our products for heavy metals and other contaminants. This includes blind testing throughout the year.
What is the Purity Award?
To earn the Clean Label Project Purity Award, products must be tested for over one hundred different chemical contaminants including heavy metals and pesticides.
Clean Label Project then compares a product’s contaminant test results to the results of other products in the category. Products that earn the Purity Award have the lowest levels of contaminants compared to others in the category.
These are our Clean Label Project Purity Award winning products:
We started certifying a few of our customer favorites, and we’ll be seeing some more certifications in 2024 and 2025.
No food is completely free of heavy metals, but you can reduce baby’s exposure
Keep in mind that nearly all foods contain some level of chemical contaminants. And there’s no way to produce a food that’s totally free from heavy metals.
It's impossible for food brands to produce foods completely free of heavy metals because of how common they are in the soil – many foods absorb these metals from the ground in very small amounts.
Still, you can make choices that minimize baby’s exposure to these metals and other contaminants, including:
- Skipping baby foods with rice, as rice is high in arsenic
- Feeding an iron-rich and calcium-rich diet, as iron and calcium help reduce lead absorption
- Feeding a diverse diet, so baby doesn’t eat too much of one food that’s naturally higher in heavy metals
- Choosing organic foods (grown in higher-quality soil without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers applied)
- Choosing products that are transparent about keeping contaminant levels low, such as Ready. Set. Food! Read more about our commitments below.
Ready. Set. Food!: Committed to a Healthier Future for Your Baby
Ready. Set. Food! makes early allergen introduction safe, easy and convenient for all babies, to help give them the best chance at a future of food freedom. Our science-backed, allergist-developed and parent-approved system introduces babies as young as 4 months old to the most common food allergens, just like the medical guidelines recommend.
All our products contain only organic, real food ingredients, are unsweetened, and are regularly tested to ensure they’re safe for baby. And we don’t include any artificial additives in any of our products.
Here’s how all of our Ready. Set. Food! products keep baby’s health and safety in mind:
Reducing baby’s exposure to contaminants
Ready. Set. Food! is committed to monitoring and reducing babies' and toddlers' exposure to toxic elements. We are aligned with the FDA’s Closer to Zero program for monitoring and reducing exposure to toxic contaminants in baby and toddler foods.
Independent third-party labs test all of our products and ingredients to ensure that our products are below the current and proposed FDA action limits for heavy metals.
Remember that all foods are subject to natural levels of heavy metals. So, having no heavy metals in baby food isn't entirely possible. But we do test all of our products regularly to make sure heavy metal levels continue to stay low in every product, and our products are created in the most healthy way for your baby.
USDA Certified Organic
In addition to this, all of our products are USDA Certified Organic and non-GMO.
What does it mean when a food is organic?
- Plant-based organic food ingredients (like peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, soy, sesame, fruits, and vegetables) are grown in soil that has had no harmful synthetic pesticides or fertilizers applied to it for at least three years.
- Organic animal products (like milk and eggs) come from animals raised without antibiotics or growth hormones, and fed only organic feed.
- Organic multi-ingredient foods (like Ready. Set. Food!) cannot contain any artificial preservatives, colors, or flavors, and must be made with at least 95% organic ingredients.
- All USDA Certified Organic foods are also certified non-GMO (meaning they don’t contain genetically modified ingredients).
Continuing to work with Clean Label Project
Ready. Set. Food! is a Clean Label Project Certified brand, and our system is the first allergen introduction system to receive this certification
Our Stage 1 and 2 Mix-Ins and Original Organic Baby Oatmeal are Clean Label Project Purity Award-winning, and we’re working with Clean Label Project to certify the rest of our products. More certifications are on the way in 2024 and 2025.
These are just some of the ways we affirm our commitment to helping set babies and toddlers up for a healthier future – both through what's included in our products, and through what's left out and minimized.
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All health-related content on this website is for informational purposes only and does not create a doctor-patient relationship. Always seek the advice of your own pediatrician in connection with any questions regarding your baby’s health.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If your infant has severe eczema, check with your infant’s healthcare provider before feeding foods containing ground peanuts.