2020 Volume 37 Pages 61-64
The sales amount of commercially available baby food products is increasing in Japan. While babies and toddlers are prone to iron deficiency, hijiki seaweed (Sargassum fusiforme) is regarded as iron source in Japan. However, it is well known that hijiki seaweed contains excessive amount of inorganic arsenic. The provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) of inorganic arsenic once established by the World Health Organization (WHO) had been withdrawn, because the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) concluded that the current PTWI for inorganic arsenic was no longer health protective. It is necessary to pay attention to use of hijiki seaweed for babies and toddlers. Therefore, we examined how many baby food products containing hijiki seaweed are on the market in Japan. The 24 baby food items were found to contain hijiki seaweed in the 560 baby food products (4.3％) by this study.
