Arsenic, lead, mercury in baby food: FDA must stop unsafe metal levels usatoday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from usatoday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
comments
A new report reveals that the baby foods sold by a number of major manufacturers may be contaminated with poisonous heavy metals and President Donald Trump s administration, despite knowing about it, did nothing.
The House Oversight Committee released a report on Thursday based on a congressional investigation into the potential presence of toxic heavy metals including lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury in baby foods. Four baby food manufacturers provided Congress with information about the amount of toxic heavy metals in their foods based on their own internal testing, including Beech-Nut Nutrition Company, Gerber, Hain Celestial Group, Inc. and Nurture Inc. Between those four companies, Congress found that the companies allow dangerously high levels of toxic heavy metals in their foods and that the foods sold by the companies frequently exceed even those standards.
Share
Photo: (Photo : Photo by amsw photography from Pexels)
On Tuesday, Attorney General Letitia James of New York urged the U.S. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will set minimum safety standards for all baby foods about toxic metals.
James called the FDA to follow suggestions given last week by a U.S. House panel to set guidelines on all baby foods, not just rice cereal, and to mandate food producers to screen for harmful metals instead of finished product additives.
She also said that she is exploring all legal options simultaneously. The FDA said it got the letter and will reply directly to AG James. Last week, the department said it had a firm intention to continue reducing public exposure to toxic foodborne elements and other pollutants. Dangerous amounts of radioactive heavy metals in some baby foods that could cause brain harm was identified in the House Committee on Oversight and Reform report.
Some Baby Foods Found to Contain High Levels of Toxic Heavy Metals
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.
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.