A House subcommittee is increasing pressure on the Food and Drug Administration to increase its standards regulating the amount of arsenic and heavy metals in food marketed for babies and toddlers and encouraging brands to phase out ingredients that are difficult to keep below the regulated amounts.
The Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, which operates under the House Oversight and Reform Committee, released the report on Wednesday as a follow-up to its initial findings in February.
Beech-Nut, Gerber, Walmart, Plum Organics, and Sprout Foods were among the companies implicated by the report for having low testing standards that allowed too much arsenic, mercury, lead, and cadmium in their baby food. While these substances are present at the same rates in most other foods, they can harm the neurological development of young children in even very small amounts. Though these are naturally occurring, pesticides and other environmental factors have increased their presence in food over the past few decades.
The subcommittee asked the FDA to institute its “Closer to Zero” action plan as soon as possible, which would articulate the maximum amount in parts per billion that harmful substances can compose in baby food. It also asks the FDA to require the manufacturers to test the finished products themselves.
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If the FDA does not approve the measures, then the subcommittee asks food manufacturers to test their products and “voluntarily find substitutes for ingredients that are high in toxic heavy metals, or, if they cannot find appropriate substitutes, should phase out products that have high amounts of ingredients that frequently test high in toxic heavy metals, such as rice.”
“My Subcommittee’s investigation has pulled back the curtain on the baby foods industry, and each revelation has been more damning than the last,” Chairman Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat, said in a statement. “Today’s report reveals that companies not only under-report the high levels of toxic content in their baby food, but also knowingly keep toxic products on the market. The facts speak for themselves, and the fact of the matter is that the baby food industry has consistently cut corners and put profit over the health of babies and children.”
The subcommittee released the Wednesday report to counteract what it saw as insufficient steps from the brands toward making baby food safer. Beech-Nut issued only a partial recall, and Gerber issued no recall for rice cereals that exceeded the FDA limits for arsenic in rice products following the February report. The products exceeded 200 parts per billion of arsenic, above the 100 ppb FDA cap, according to tests done earlier this year.
The subcommittee said that all parties are cooperating with the proposals.
“We have always required that our suppliers’ products meet the guidelines established by the FDA,” Walmart said in a statement. “Our specifications have always been aligned with or below the FDA requirements for naturally occurring elements and the FDA noted in April that its testing shows that children ’are not at an immediate health risk to exposure.’ We are encouraged the FDA launched a collaborative process to establish science-based standards for infant and baby foods and look forward to further guidance.”
Gerber also said it is committed to making safe baby food but that it is unable to confirm independently the FDA’s finding that its rice cereal contained an unsafe amount of arsenic, which is why it did not issue a recall.
“The FDA made us aware of their contact from the State of Alaska about a sample of our rice cereal that tested slightly above the guidance level for inorganic arsenic set by the FDA, and was referenced in the report,” a Gerber spokesperson said. “The FDA retested the sample, was unable to confirm the result by Alaska and confirmed to Gerber that no action was needed. While the Subcommittee report notes proposed limits on specific heavy metals, those are based on proposed standards from the Baby Food Safety Act, which are not current law or regulation. All Gerber foods have and continue to meet all applicable guidelines and limits set by the FDA, the governing body for safety regulations in the food industry.”
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Beech-Nut, while also pledging to work with the government, rejected the notion that its recall was too narrow, saying it has committed to removing all rice flour from its products.
“In addition to recalling the affected lots, Beech-Nut also proactively withdrew all Beech-Nut branded Single Grain Rice Cereal products from supermarket shelves,” the company said in a statement. “Further, Beech-Nut decided to exit the market for its branded infant rice products because it is concerned about being able to consistently obtain rice flour well-below the FDA guidance level.”
Plum Organics and Sprout Foods did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment.
