Behind the Scenes

A CR investigation found that store-bought Lunchables food kits and similar kits had relatively high amounts of lead, cadmium, and sodium, and all but one contained the plastic chemical phthalate. We also found that the school lunch versions of these kits had even more sodium than the store-bought versions.

Even in small amounts, heavy metals such as lead and cadmium can cause developmental problems in children. Adults who consume heavy metals can also experience hypertension, kidney damage, and other health problems. The risks of heavy metals are cumulative and come from regular exposure over time. The less you consume, the better.

“There’s a lot to be concerned about in these kits,” says Amy Keating, a registered dietitian at CR. “They’re highly processed, and regularly eating processed meat, a main ingredient in many of these products, has been linked to increased risk of some cancers.”

CR’s findings were covered by the media, including  CNN, People, and USA Today.

Join us in calling on the USDA to remove Lunchables from school lunch programs.

Through their testing, CR security and privacy test engineers discovered serious security flaws in a widely-available video doorbell manufactured by the company Eken. Thousands of these video doorbells are sold each month on Amazon and other online marketplaces, including Walmart, Sears, and the globally popular marketplaces Shein and Temu. 

CR discovered vulnerabilities that could have allowed a hacker, stalker, or other bad actor to gain control of the doorbell and view images from the doorbell camera remotely. They also lacked ID labels on the packaging required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). We labeled them a “Don’t Buy: Safety Risk” in our video doorbell ratings. CR advocates briefed the FCC, which fired off letters to the retailers we found selling these doorbells and asked them why they were selling insecure, non-compliant devices and what policies they have in place to address such issues. 

Eken met with CR test engineers to learn about the issues we found and then fixed the security flaws. After our team confirmed the fixes, we removed the “Don’t Buy” label.  

“We’re pleased to see Eken fix the issues with its products in response to our findings,” says Maria Rerecich, CR’s senior director of product testing. “While we would prefer that products be safe and secure from their initial launch, the ability of our testing to uncover vulnerabilities results in better products for consumers.”

CR test engineers conduct a variety of tests on home security cameras, including those for video quality, response time, data privacy, data security, and useful smart features like person detection. We conduct more than 70 data privacy and security tests for each camera.

View our home security camera ratings here, only available to CR members like you.

CR’s most comprehensive investigation ever of pesticides in produce found that exposure to two broad classes of chemicals – organophosphates and carbamates – are the most hazardous, linked to an increased risk of cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Sixteen of the 25 fruits and 21 of the 34 vegetables in our analysis had low levels of pesticide risk. Ten foods were of moderate risk. Twelve foods presented bigger concerns. Read CR’s report to see which fruits and vegetables are safer and which are risky.

While we found that some foods still have worrisome levels of certain dangerous pesticides, our analysis also offers insights into how you can limit your pesticide exposure now, and what government regulators should do to fix the problem in the long term. These pesticides are concentrated in common foods including blueberries, green beans, potatoes, and peppers, which are grown on a small fraction of U.S. farmland, making it easier to develop targeted solutions.

The vast majority of produce is already grown without hazardous pesticides, and you should be able to safely eat produce without the threat of these health-damaging chemicals.

Join us in calling on the EPA to ban dangerous pesticides in fruits and vegetables.

To better understand how vehicle costs increase over time and differ by brand, we asked you in our 2023 Annual Auto Surveys to tell us how much you paid out of pocket for your total maintenance and repairs during the previous 12 months.

Our analysis found that there are significant differences in costs as cars age, underscoring how maintenance and repair expenses rise over time. 

“The difference to maintain a car on average between some brands can be thousands over a 10-year time frame,” says Steven Elek, Consumer Reports’ program leader for auto data analytics.

See our maintenance and repair cost rankings by brand, which show the cumulative costs for years one through five, years six through 10, and total costs for 10 years.

In April, Amazon, Target, and the baby registry site Babylist  told CR they will no longer sell weighted baby sleep sacks and weighted baby swaddles due to safety concerns. For months CR has reported on the dangers of these products and pushed for action from retailers. We warned people to stop using them because even gentle pressure can obstruct babies’ breathing and heart rates. Weighted blankets and swaddles can also make it hard for babies to get themselves out of unsafe sleeping positions, posing the risk of suffocation.  

Despite warnings from groups like CR and the American Academy of Pediatrics, these products continued to be sold—and there are even more brands selling look-alike products online than there were last year. The Consumer Product Safety Commission wrote to several retailers about the hazards and asked them to consider whether they want to keep selling such products.

Finally, Amazon emailed customers who’ve bought weighted infant sleep items to tell them that they’re unsafe and shouldn’t be used with children under 3 years old. Amazon, Target, and Babylist told CR they would stop selling weighted infant sleep products.

CR commended the retailers for taking action and repeated our call for people to stop using these products and to instead opt for one of the many safer options for parents to help with sleep. U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is calling for a federal investigation into the makers of two popular weighted infant sleep products – Dreamland Baby and Nested Bean – for deceptive advertising. 

Share safe sleeping tips from CR experts with the new parents and caregivers in your life.

It is the support of members like you who make it possible for us to fight for safer products and ensure companies and legislators put consumers first.