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 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.
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."
The report urged U.S. 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, while
baby food companies said they were working to reducing levels of
metals that occur naturally in food products.
Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat who chairs the panel
that released the report, said it found "these manufacturers
knowingly sell baby food containing high levels of toxic heavy
metals ... It’s time that we develop much better standards for the
sake of future generations."
A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spokesman said the agency was
reviewing the report.
The agency noted toxic elements are present in the environment and
enter the food supply through soil, water or air. "Because they
cannot be completely removed, our goal is to reduce exposure to
toxic elements in foods to the greatest extent feasible," the FDA
said.
Campbell said in a statement on its website that its products are
safe and cited the lack of a current FDA standard for heavy metals
in baby food. The market's sixth biggest brand said it thought it
had been "full partners" in the study with congressional
researchers.
Walmart said it submitted information to the committee in February
2020 and never received any subsequent inquiries. The retail giant
requires private label product suppliers to hew to its own internal
specifications, "which for baby and toddler food means the levels
must meet or fall below the limits established by the FDA."
Happy Family Organics said it was "disappointed at the many
inaccuracies, select data usage and tone bias in this report. We can
say with the utmost confidence that all Happy Family Organics
products are safe for babies and toddlers to enjoy." It added it
welcomes "additional guidelines from the FDA."
Hain Celestial - the baby food market's No.4. player which makes
Earth's Best - said the "report examined outdated data and does not
reflect our current practices" and said it "inaccurately
characterized a meeting with the FDA."
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 Hain added since then it "took
several steps to reduce the levels of heavy
metals in our finished products – including no
longer using brown rice in our products that are
primarily rice based, changing other ingredients
and conducting additional testing of finished
product before shipping." A
representative from Gerber - which sells about a fifth of all baby
food in the United States - said the elements in question occur
naturally in the soil and water in which crops are grown and added
it takes multiple steps "to minimize their presence."
Beech-Nut Nutrition said it was reviewing the report and is working
with other companies "on science-based standards that food suppliers
can implement across our industry." The report was
critical also of the administration of former President Donald
Trump, saying it "ignored a secret industry presentation to federal
regulators revealing increased risks of toxic heavy metals in baby
foods."
The report said "in 100% of the Hain baby foods tested, inorganic
arsenic levels were higher in the finished baby food than the
company estimated they would be based on individual ingredient
testing."
It said that in August 2019 the FDA received a secret slide
presentation from Hain that said "corporate policies to test only
ingredients, not final products, underrepresent the levels of toxic
heavy metals in baby foods."
The report said the FDA took no new action in response. "To this
day, baby foods containing toxic heavy metals bear no label or
warning to parents. Manufacturers are free to test only ingredients,
or, for the vast majority of baby foods, to conduct no testing at
all," the report said.
The FDA has declared that inorganic arsenic, lead, cadmium, and
mercury are dangerous, particularly to infants and children, the
report noted.
The FDA in August finalized guidance to industry, setting an action
level of 100 parts per billion inorganic arsenic in infant rice
cereal.
"We acknowledge that there is more work to be done, but the FDA
reiterates its strong commitment to continue to reduce consumer
exposure to toxic elements and other contaminants from food," the
FDA said Thursday.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey and David Shepardson; Additional
reporting by Chris Sanders, Richa Naidu and Silke Koltrowitz;
Editing by Howard Goller, Steve Orlofsky and Marguerita Choy)
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