Introduction: Studies conducted on foods aimed for infants and young children have shown that foods containing rice have a high content of arsenic and cadmium. Arsenic and cadmium are toxic elements classified as carcinogens. It is therefore especially important to keep the levels low in foods for infants and young children since they have a high intestinal absorption and since the negative effects become apparent only after many years of chronic exposure.

Aim: The aim of this project was to investigate if the rice flour in baby-food gruel could be replaced with corn flour with the aim to decrease the content of primarily arsenic and cadmium and sustain low levels of lead and mercury while retaining sensory properties. A native corn starch was also evaluated in terms of heavy metal content and sensory properties.

Material & Methods: The rice flour in 4 different recipes was replaced with various proportions of flour and starch from corn whereon sensory evaluations were performed. Stability and viscosity measurements were conducted and the content of arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury was analysed.

Results/Conclusion: No differences in texture and mouth feel could be perceived at low corn flour concentrations when mixed with rice flour. Replacement of 60% of the rice flour fraction with corn flour in a gruel which contained 1.1% rice flour (w/w), may have led to an increased arsenic content. The corn starch provided the highest viscosity and had a smoother mouth feel at the same concentration compared to the corn flour and might be a better choice than the corn flour. In addition, corn starch had a lower content of cadmium and lead compared to the corn flour but further research is needed to establish which one contains the lowest level of arsenic. Both had a lower content of arsenic compared to the rice flour when the flours were analysed separately.