How every number on this page is 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), and Australia/New Zealand — converted into the product’s own powder, 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, 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 powder basis. Every analyte carries a firm ceiling. A brand meeting every value on a like-for-like basis qualifies for the mark for infant formula in powder form.
| Analyte | Tier | HMTc limit | Binding basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead (Pb) | Tier 1 | 20 | strictest government ML (EU) |
| Inorganic arsenic (iAs) | Tier 1 | 20 | strictest government ML (EU) |
| Cadmium (Cd) | Tier 1 | 10 | strictest government ML (EU) |
| Mercury (tHg) | Tier 1 | 20 | government read-across (China GB 2762, canned complementary → formula) |
| Nickel (Ni) | Tier 2 | 250 | strictest government ML (EU) |
| Aluminium (Al) | Tier 2 | 4000 cow / 8000 soy | 1000 as-consumed × 8:1 conversion |
| Tin (Sn) | Tier 2 | 5000 | strictest government ML (India, as-sold) |
| Total chromium (Cr) | Tier 2 | 2000 | government read-across (China GB 2762 milk powder → formula) |
Tier 1 (Pb, Cd, iAs, Hg) are zero-tolerance toxics with no established safe threshold. Tier 2 (Ni, Al, Sn, Cr) carry a 150% transitional allowance under the program’s Status A–E framework. Total chromium is limited at 2000 µg/kg (China GB 2762, dairy read-across); 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 — every government’s number, side by side
This is the full derivation for cow-milk formula powder. Each row lists every government maximum level in force worldwide, converted to the as-sold powder 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 infant formula. Every value is a published government maximum; where the exact product is unregulated (mercury) the limit is read across from the nearest government value, and superscript-marked cells carry a single disclosed basis conversion.
| Analyte | EU | UK | Codex | Canada | China | India | Brazil | GSO | NZ | HMTc | Binds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lead (Pb) | 20 | 50 | 80¹ | 80¹ | 80 | 200 | 80¹ | 80¹ | 80¹ | 20 | EU |
| Inorganic arsenic (iAs) | 20 | — | — | — | — | — | 160¹ | — | — | 20 | EU |
| Cadmium (Cd) | 10 | 10 | — | — | — | 100 | 80¹ | — | — | 10 | EU |
| Mercury (tHg) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 20² | read-across |
| Nickel (Ni) | 250 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 250 | EU |
| Aluminium (Al) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 4000¹ | 4000 | NZ |
| Tin (Sn) | — | — | — | — | — | 5000 | — | — | — | 5000 | India |
| Total chromium (Cr) | — | — | — | — | 2000³ | — | — | — | — | 2000 | China |
All values µg/kg (ppb), as-sold powder basis. ¹ basis-converted from the as-consumed limit at the 8:1 powder-to-liquid ratio — the only such ratio a government legislates (China GB 2762 footnote c), which also matches physical reconstitution (~13 g powder per 100 mL). ² read-across: no government sets a mercury ML for infant formula anywhere; the nearest government value is China GB 2762 total-mercury 20 µg/kg for canned complementary infant foods, applied by read-across. FDA testing (195 baby-food samples, 76% non-detect, max 3.5 ppb) confirms a clean platform clears it with margin. ³ total chromium via China GB 2762 milk-powder limit (dairy read-across); hexavalent chromium has no government limit in any jurisdiction and is controlled through this total-Cr limit — speciation on any total-Cr result above 100 ppb, any quantifiable Cr-VI fails. Soy formula powder differs in cadmium (20), nickel (400) and aluminium (8000), per the EU and AU/NZ formulation splits.
The published government regulations this standard derives from. Each maximum level is a sovereign limit and each read-across the nearest applicable government value; follow a reference for the source document and its per-analyte limits. Mercury and, in non-dairy matrices, chromium carry no direct government limit for these products and are handled by the read-across and reflex-speciation rules described above.
| # | Citation | Year | Type | Used on this page for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 915 | 2023 | Maximum levels | Lead, inorganic arsenic, cadmium, nickel — binding maximum levels |
| 2 | GB 2762 — National Food Safety Standard | 2022 | Maximum levels | Total chromium — binding maximum level; Mercury — read-across |
| 3 | FSSAI (Contaminants, Toxins and Residues) Regulations | 2011 | Maximum levels | Tin — binding maximum level |
| 4 | FSANZ Food Standards Code — Schedule 19 | 2015 | Maximum levels | Aluminium — binding maximum level |
Cite this standard
Pendergrass, K. “Infant formula (powder).” In Heavy Metal Tested & Certified (HMTc) Infant and Child Foods standard, version 3.0. Institute of Contaminant Standards (ICS), 2026. DOI pending (Zenodo).
The literature baseline for every analyte is maintained independently at the Heavy Metal Index. This certification standard applies those findings; the two are kept editorially separate by design.
Version history
The dated editions of this standard. Each is kept at a stable permalink, so a regulator or brand can reconstruct exactly what the standard required on any date — the edition record, not an editorial commit trail. Version-pinned DOIs link here once each edition is deposited.
| Version | Date | Status | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| v3.0 | 2026-08-05 | current | Initial government-limit standard (Method v2.0): the strictest sovereign maximum by lookup, converted to the as-sold powder basis; read-across for the cells no government regulates the exact product. Mercury 20 (China GB 2762 read-across), Cr-VI controlled via total-Cr + reflex speciation. |