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Baby food testing, metal limits proposed

Sen. Chuck Schumer, right, speaks to the media on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019, in New York. Michael Akavan holds his 6-week-old daughter, Summer, as he listens to Schumer speak. Schumer is calling on the Food and Drug Administration to examine a report that found dozens of baby food products contaminated with lead and other metals. (AP Photo/Julie Walker)

A new bill introduced in the state House of Representatives would set limits on toxic heavy metals in baby food and require testing of any baby food made in Pennsylvania.

House Bill 2535, introduced by Rep. Liz Hanbidge, D-Montgomery, has been referred to the House Health Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Kathy Rapp, R-Warren.

Hanbidge proposes the following limits of toxic heavy metals in baby foods sold in Pennsylvania stores:

¯ inorganic arsenic — 10 parts per billion

¯ lead — 5 parts per billion

¯ cadmium — 5 parts per billion

¯ mercury — 2 parts per billion.

“We should be taking every precaution necessary to protect Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable residents, our children,” Hanbidge wrote in her legislative memorandum. “Therefore, I will be introducing legislation that would require that the Pennsylvania Department of Health test a representative sample of each batch of baby food manufactured in the Commonwealth for the presence of toxic heavy metals. Furthermore, all baby food products that have been tested would be required to be affixed with a label noting the levels of inorganic arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, and other toxic heavy metals found in the representative samples.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, called on the federal Food and Drug Administration to dig into the issue back in 2019. The New York senator said consumers “rightfully expect those foods to be undeniably safe, appropriately regulated and nutritiously sustaining.”

Schumer explained that the FDA established a Toxic Elements Working Group in 2017 to modernize safety standards for the toxic metals Americans are exposed to, including in food. However, the agency has introduced no new standards in the time since. For example, the FDA failed to finalize arsenic guidelines for infant rice cereal and apple juice by the end of 2018, a deadline the agency had set.

According to the Associated Press, the resulting congressional investigation completed in February 2021 found levels of arsenic, lead and other toxic metals in many popular baby foods, including organic brands. A U.S. House Subcommittee requested internal data from seven companies, including Walmart, in 2019 after a nonprofit called Healthy Babies Bright Futures published results of testing it did on baby foods. Four of the companies — Gerber, Beech-Nut, Earth’s Best Organics maker Hain Celestial and Happy Family Organics maker Nurture Inc. — shared documents. The subcommittee said Walmart, Sprout Foods and Campbell Soup Co., which makes Plum Organics baby food, didn’t cooperate.

Arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury — metals that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers harmful to human health — can remain in the environment for decades from past pesticide and herbicide use, Michael Hansen, a senior staff scientist with Consumer Reports, told the Associated Press.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, is supporting the Baby Food Safety Act in Congress. The Baby Food Safety Act would limit the amount of lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium contained in baby food by imposing strict requirements on manufacturers to regularly test and verify that their baby foods are under new, lowered limits for these substances. The legislation would also require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to further lower limits for toxic metals within two years, to put regulations in place within three years, and to review the regulatory limits every five years.

“It is outrageous that trusted brands are knowingly selling toxic baby food to unsuspecting parents,” Gillibrand said recently. “Lead and other heavy metals cause serious and permanent damage to our children’s health. We must act now to keep our kids safe and I’m proud to be introducing this bill that will do just that.”

The bill was sponsored by Senator Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and was also cosponsored by Senators Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

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