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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. congressional investigators found “dangerous levels of toxic heavy metals” in certain baby foods that could cause neurological damage, a House Oversight subcommittee said in a report released on Thursday in calling for new standards and testing requirements.
FILE PHOTO: Baby food products are pictured in a shop at Nestle headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland, February 15, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
The panel examined products made by Nurture Inc, Hain Celestial Group Inc, Beech-Nut Nutrition and Gerber, a unit of Nestle, it said, adding that it was “greatly concerned” that Walmart Inc, Campbell Soup Co and Sprout Organic Foods refused to cooperate with the investigation. The U.S. baby food market was worth an estimated $8 billion in 2020, according to Euromonitor.
Mercury was detected in baby food of the only responding company, Nurture, that tested for it.
Beech-Nut and Hain do not even test for mercury in baby food, while Gerber rarely tests for mercury in its baby food, according to the report. Even low levels of exposure can cause serious and often irreversible damage to brain development, added the report, which was released by the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy. (iStock)
The report recommends that the FDA set maximum levels of toxic heavy metals permitted in baby foods and require companies to test their finished products not just their various ingredients for the metals.
by: By Sandee LaMotte, CNN
Posted:
Feb 4, 2021 / 03:23 PM EST
(CNN) Four leading baby food manufacturers knowingly sold baby food that contained high levels of toxic heavy metals, according to internal company documents included in a congressional investigation released Thursday.
“Dangerous levels of toxic metals like arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury exist in baby foods at levels that exceed what experts and governing bodies say are permissible,” said Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, chair of the House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, which conducted the investigation, signed by the Democratic members.
Krishnamoorthi said the spreadsheets provided by manufacturers are “shocking” because they show evidence that some baby foods contain hundreds of parts per billion of dangerous metals. “Yet we know that in a lot of cases, we should not have anything more than single digit parts per billion of any of these metals in any of our foods,”
United States congressional investigators found “dangerous levels of toxic heavy metals” in certain baby foods that could cause neurological damage, a House of Representatives oversight subcommittee said in a report released on Thursday.
The panel examined baby foods made by Nurture Inc, Hain Celestial Group Inc, Beech-Nut Nutrition and Gerber, a unit of Nestle, it said, adding that it was “greatly concerned” that Walmart Inc, Campbell Soup Co and Sprout Organic Foods refused to cooperate with the investigation.
The report said internal company standards “permit dangerously high levels of toxic heavy metals, and documents revealed that the manufacturers have often sold foods that exceeded those levels” and it called on US regulators to set maximum levels of toxic heavy metals permitted in baby foods and require manufacturers to test finished products for heavy metals, not just ingredients.