An investigation conducted by a committee in the U.S. House of Representatives found that some top baby food brands were selling products that contained “dangerously high levels” of toxic metals and called on ways to ensure regulators enforce tougher standards.
The discovery of toxic metals in baby food came after major companies including Gerber; Beech-Nut Nutrition Company; Nurture, Inc., which produces “Happy Baby” products; and Hain Celestial Group, which offers “Earth Best” organic baby food handed over internal testing results requested by the congressional committee.
That list included Campbell Soup, Walmart, and Sprout Foods. The report noted, “The subcommittee is greatly concerned that these companies might be obscuring the presence of even higher levels of toxic heavy metals in their baby food products.”
Some of the products had over 90 times the safe amount of arsenic, 177 times more lead, 69 times more cadmium, and five times more mercury. These four toxins are all listed in the top ten most dangerous chemicals for infants and children by the WHO.
Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, who heads the committee, said last 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.”
He said it was “shocking” that some of the products have hundreds of parts per billion of these dangerous metals even when “in a lot of cases, we should not have anything more than single-digit parts per billion of any of these metals in our foods.”
Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, stated the findings are particularly troubling since even minute amounts of these toxic substances can damage an infant’s developing brain. All of the heavy metals detected have been shown to increase the risk of cancer and chronic disease. “It’s especially troubling that some companies knew of the high levels of heavy metal contamination and still sold the products.”
According to WebMD Health News Center, while the four leading companies, Gerber, Beech-Nut, Nurture, Inc., and Hain Celestial Group voluntarily agreed to give the congressional subcommittee the internal reports, other companies refused to comply.
The subcommittee expressed exasperation that even an organic food company like Hain proved toxic:
“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. Inorganic arsenic was between 28% and 93% higher in the finished products.”
CNN, reporting on this story, noted, “One of the most shocking revelations in the report is that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not yet set minimum levels for heavy metals in most infant food.”
TRENDPOST: According to SGS, the Swiss multinational company providing inspection, verification, and testing services, “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has almost no requirements for baby foods and generally includes these products with all foods.”
We note this story, which hardly made headlines and vanished from the mainstream media in just one day, to illustrate how Presstitutes keep banging the COVID War drum while ignoring the health implications of millions of children who have been swallowing these toxic laced foods over the decades.
