Infant formula (powder) — HMTc Standard

How limits are set

The standard for each analyte is the strictest maximum level set by any credible government regulator — the European Union, the United Kingdom, Codex Alimentarius, Health Canada, China, India, Brazil, the Gulf states (GSO), Australia/New Zealand, and the US FDA — converted into Infant formula (powder)’s own as-sold basis. It is a lookup of sovereign law, carrying at most one disclosed basis conversion where the law is written in another basis, and an explicit read-across where no government regulates the exact product. A certified product sits at or below every applicable sovereign limit at once.

Where no government regulates the exact product for an analyte, the standard does not go blank or invent a number: the limit is read across from the nearest government value for an analogous product, so a certified product still sits at or below a real sovereign limit. The ratchet tightens these after publication as surveillance warrants.

Master Limit Table

All values in ppb (µg/kg), as-sold basis. Every analyte carries a firm ceiling. A brand meeting every value on a like-for-like basis qualifies for the mark.

Every claim analyte is equal at the gate. A product is certified only when every analyte is at or below 100% of its published government floor or disclosed read-across; above the limit, on any metal, it is not certified and carries no mark. Arsenic is limited in both forms: total arsenic (tAs) and inorganic arsenic (iAs) are separate ceilings that must both be met, and the species result never replaces the parent total. Total chromium is limited as shown; hexavalent chromium is controlled through it — mandatory Cr-VI speciation on any total-chromium result above 100 ppb, and any quantifiable Cr-VI fails.

Derivation

The full derivation for Infant formula (powder). Each row lists every government maximum level in force worldwide, converted to the as-sold basis; the HMTc limit is the strictest of them, and the last column names which sovereign law binds. A blank cell means that government sets no limit for this analyte in this product.

All values µg/kg (ppb), as-sold basis. ¹ basis-converted at the 8:1 powder-to-liquid ratio — the only such ratio a government legislates (China GB 2762 footnote c). ² read-across: no government sets this analyte for this exact product; the value is read across from the nearest government value for an analogous product. ³ not material in this matrix: measured but with no standalone number, controlled by the total-metal screen, not an invented value. Variants on this page: cow and soy. Where a cell differs between them the Master Limit Table shows both; the derivation above is for cow.

Occurrence and derivation rationale

For each analyte on the panel: what the peer-reviewed and survey literature measured in this category, cited one way to the Heavy Metal Index, and the Method v2.0 reasoning behind the certification limit — including, where no government sets a number, why the program sets one anyway. Occurrence figures are literature findings; the derivation is the certifier's.

Risk Flag

On the published occurrence literature to date, Infant formula (powder) shows no systematic gap between typical market levels and the limit — the limit being the strictest government maximum for the product (Method v2.0). Certification is decided on a product’s own tested result, not on a distribution; an individual lot or supplier can still exceed a limit.

See the cross-category summary of the ingredients that most often struggle.