High levels of toxic heavy metals found in some baby foods: report
Source: Reuters
By David Shepardson and Susan Heavey
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.
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 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.
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 ... Its time that we develop much better standards for the sake of future generations."
Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/high-levels-toxic-heavy-metals-144905884.html
They really are bastards.
underpants
(182,271 posts)Starfury
(812 posts)From CNN:
Baby food ingredients in certain products contained up to 91 times the inorganic arsenic level, up to 177 times the lead level, up to 69 times the cadmium level, and up to five times the mercury level allowed in bottled water, the report said, yet the companies still approved those products for sale.
Whether the baby food was organic or not did not matter, the subcommittee found -- levels of toxic metals were still high.
CNN reached out to the four companies for reaction prior to the publication of the report, which none of them had yet seen.
Here's the House report (.pdf)