Researchers at Dartmouth have found arsenic in foods that use organic brown rice syrup as a sweetener, including infant formula and cereal bars, according to Consumer Reports.

They conclude that given the increasing prevalence of hidden arsenic in food, “there is an urgent need for regulatory limits on As (arsenic) in food.”

Legislation was introduced Feb. 8 in the U.S. House of Representatives calling on the Food and Drug Administration to establish standards for both arsenic and lead in fruit juices; there are currently no federal thresholds for arsenic in juices or most foods, the study reports.

“In the absence of regulations for levels of arsenic in food, I would certainly advise parents who are concerned about their children's exposure to arsenic not to feed them formula where brown rice syrup is the main ingredient,” says Brian Jackson, Ph.D., lead author of this latest study and a member of Dartmouth’s Superfund Research Program, which is funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. He noted, however, that infant formulas containing added rice starch did not appear to be a concern in terms of elevated arsenic.