PHOENIX —Attorney General Kris Mayes is urging the FDA and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to protect babies and young children from potential lead poisoning and exposure to heavy metals in commercial baby foods. Mayes’ letter urges the Food and Drug Administration reconsider a petition filed by 20 state attorneys general over three years ago requesting the agency issue critically-needed industry guidance to avoid lead poisonings and product recalls.
“We all know how vulnerable babies are to toxic metals like lead,” said AG Mayes. “The FDA’s delay in acting on the states’ petition to protect them and avoid these senseless food recalls is inexcusable. It’s past time for the FDA to act.”
Peer reviewed studies detail the dangers of even low-level exposure to heavy metals like lead, which can include decreases in IQ, diminished future economic productivity, and increased risk of future criminal and antisocial behavior. As babies transition to solid foods, parents rely on baby and toddler foods available to them in local grocery stores, but recently several products have been subject to nationwide recalls due to high levels of lead and other heavy metals. Such levels can be reduced by food manufacturers with finished product testing. The coalition of states’ attorneys general are asking FDA to issue guidance on finished product testing and AG Mayes believes this is critical.
Just this past March, Target issued a nationwide recall of a store-brand baby food product, “Good & Gather” Vegetable Puree, due to elevated lead levels, and in November 2024, the FDA sent a warning letter to Wanabana USA LLC over the massive cinnamon applesauce lead poisoning outbreak in 2023.
“Had FDA used the authority they have to issue guidance on finished product testing years ago as requested by my state AG colleagues, these recalls and lead poisonings might have been avoided,” said Mayes. “There’s no excuse for delay now.”
AG Mayes is joined in her letter to FDA by District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb. The state attorneys general that are part of the original petitioning and repetitioning coalition are: New York, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, North Carolina, Washington, and Wisconsin.
A copy of AG Mayes’ letter can be found below.
