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), Australia/New Zealand, and the US FDA — converted into Infant formula (ready-to-feed, liquid)’s own as-consumed 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-consumed basis. Every analyte carries a firm ceiling. A brand meeting every value on a like-for-like basis qualifies for the mark.
| Analyte | Tier | HMTc limit | Binding basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead (Pb) | Tier 1 | 10 | strictest government ML (EU) |
| Inorganic arsenic (iAs) | Tier 1 | 10 | strictest government ML (EU) |
| Mercury (tHg) | Tier 1 | 20 | government read-across — China GB 2762 total-Hg 20 for canned complementary infant foods; no government sets a mercury ML for any infant-food form, so 20 is applied as the program-settled flat value (matches the deployed formula-powder standard). |
| Cadmium (Cd) | Tier 1 | 5 cow / 10 soy | strictest government ML (EU) |
| Total chromium (Cr) | Tier 2 | 300 | government read-across (China GB 2762 liquid milk total-Cr 300 → liquid formula; basis-matched dairy analogy) |
| Nickel (Ni) | Tier 2 | 100 | strictest government ML (EU) |
| Tin (Sn) | Tier 2 | 630 | strictest government ML (India) |
| Aluminium (Al) | Tier 2 | 500 cow / 1000 soy | NZ) |
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 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 — every government’s number, side by side
The full derivation for Infant formula (ready-to-feed, liquid). Each row lists every government maximum level in force worldwide, converted to the as-consumed 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.
| Analyte | EU | UK | Codex | Canada | China | India | Brazil | GSO | NZ | HMTc | Binds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lead (Pb) | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | EU |
| Inorganic arsenic (iAs) | 10 | — | — | — | — | — | 20 | — | — | 10 | EU |
| Mercury (tHg) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 20² | read-across |
| Cadmium (Cd) | 5 | 5 | — | — | — | 13¹ | 10 | — | — | 5 | EU |
| Total chromium (Cr) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 300² | read-across |
| Nickel (Ni) | 100 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 100 | EU |
| Tin (Sn) | — | — | — | — | — | 630¹ | — | — | — | 630 | India |
| Aluminium (Al) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 500 | 500 | NZ |
All values µg/kg (ppb), as-consumed 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: controlled by reflex speciation, not a standalone number. 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.
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 | Mercury, total chromium — 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 (ready-to-feed, liquid).” In Heavy Metal Tested & Certified (HMTc) Infant and Child Foods standard, version 1.0. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| v1.0 | 2026-08-06 | current | Initial publication. Government-limit standard (Method v2.0): each analyte is the strictest sovereign maximum by lookup, converted to the as-consumed basis; a disclosed read-across from the nearest government value where no government regulates the exact product; total chromium controlled via reflex Cr-VI speciation where not a material toxic in the matrix. |