Beech-Nut Baby Foods Contain Heavy Metals Class Action

On February 4, 2021, a House Subcommittee published a report claiming that baby foods made by some of the most prominent baby food companies have been “tainted with significant levels of toxic heavy metals, including arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury.” This class action brings suit against one of those companies, Beech-Nut Nutrition Company, for selling baby foods that are not safe for babies to eat.

The Nationwide Class for this action is all persons who bought one or more of Beech-Nut’s baby food products containing heavy metals, in the US, for personal or household use, from the beginning of the applicable limitations period through the date the class is certified in this case. The complaint also proposes Texas and Louisiana Subclasses for those living in those two states.

The report from the House of Representatives was issued by the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, Committee on Oversight and Reform. The heavy metals at issue—arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury—are neurotoxins, the complaint says.

An earlier report had been issued in October 2019 by Healthy Babies Bright Futures (HBBF), a group of nonprofit organizations, tested 168 baby foods for the presence of these four heavy metals. The complaint alleges, “All but 9 products contained at least one metal, and 26% of the baby foods tested contained all four of the Heavy Metals.”

The complaint quotes from the HBBF report, saying that exposure to these substances “diminish quality of life, reduce academic achievement, and disturb behavior, with profound consequences for the welfare and productivity of entire societies.” They “can harm a baby’s developing brain and nervous system” and may cause “the permanent loss of intellectual capacity and behavioral problems like attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).”

The complaint alleges, “The Food and Drug Administration (‘FDA’) and the World Health Organization (‘WHO’) have declared these Heavy Metals dangerous to human health, particularly to babies and children, who are most vulnerable to their neurotoxic effects. Even low levels of exposure can cause serious and often irreversible damage to brain development.”

Baby food companies are nevertheless allowed to set their own internal standards for the amounts of heavy metals their foods may contain. The complaint alleges that Beech-Nut’s marketing and advertising of its baby foods has been “false, deceptive, and misleading” because it knows that heavy metals are harmful to babies and because it does not warn consumers that its products may be harmful to babies.

Beech-Nut was one of the seven companies from which the House Subcommittee requested test results and internal documentation. It cooperated with the investigation, but the baby foods of all seven companies were found to contain “significant levels” of the heavy metals.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: Contaminated with Harmful Substances, Deceptive Advertising, Food Contamination, Heavy Metals