Dive Brief:
- Out of more than 1,300 bottles of wine tested, 31 brands were deemed unsafe to drink due to high arsenic content are the subject of a class action lawsuit filed.
- Dozens of cheap California wines were included in the list for containing levels of arsenic higher than the EPA-allowed limit for drinking water.
- The testing revelations included "Trader Joe's famed Two-Buck Chuck White Zinfandel, which came in at three times the limit, a bottle of Ménage à Trois Moscato was four times the limit and a Franzia White Grenache had five times the EPA limit for drinking water," according to CBS News.
Dive Insight:
One company involved in the lawsuit does not believe this assessment to be valid, as the U.S. government does not currently regulate wine in the same way as water. According to CBS News, "a spokesperson for The Wine Group, one of the companies named in the lawsuit, told CBS News, 'It would not be accurate or responsible to use the water standard as the baseline' because people generally drink more water than wine. He also pointed out that the highest level of arsenic cited in the lawsuit is 'only half of Canada's standard for wine, of 100 parts per billion.'"