Dive Summary:
- Gerber Products, Del Monte Foods, Beech-Nut Nutrition and other U.S. baby food manufacturers are being sued by the Environmental Law Foundation (ELF) in California over the absence of lead warning labels on their products' packaging.
- The manufacturers' lawyers assert the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tested their products and determined the lead levels were low enough not to need a warning label.
- However, ELF lawyers noted no amount of lead is safe for babies and California's Proposition 65 necessitates warning labels must be present if a product includes a toxin, such as lead, at 1/1000th of the level deemed hazardous to human health.
From the article:
"... The companies argue the lead in fruit and vegetables used in the products is naturally occurring, which if the trial judge finds is true could exempt the companies from having to warn consumers.
'Despite the trace amounts of lead in the products at issue, the federal government has determined that Americans need to eat more — not less — of these nutritious foods,' the companies' attorney, Michele Corash, wrote in court documents. ..."
