Plum, PBC is a subsidiary of the Campbell Soup Company that makes baby food. The complaint for this class action alleges, “Plum’s baby food products have been shown to contain significant levels of arsenic, mercury, lead, and cadmium—all known to pose health risks to humans and particularly infants.” Plum does not warn consumers about this, the complaint alleges, but claims that its foods are safe and healthy.
The class for this action is all persons in the US who bought the baby foods for household or business use and not for resale. See the list of products on pages 2-3 of the complaint linked below.
The complaint alleges, “Plum states that the Baby Foods it sells are, among various things, organic, non-GMO, free from artificial preservative, and safe and suitable for consumption by infants and young children.”
The complaint quotes a number of statements from the company’s website about its products:
- “Quality and transparency are woven into the fibers of our brand. We go beyond standard regulatory compliance to ensure the integrity of our products.” It lists three purported characteristics as, “Organic, and non-GMO, always,” “Strict ingredient requirements,” and “Regular supplier audits.”
- “We believe that every little one deserves the best food from the start. … It’s nutritious, simple, and made of quality ingredients.”
- “Campbell’s has conduct[ed] testing on every Plum Organics product on the market to ensure none exceed acceptable levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium or mercury… To date, no Plum Organics food has been found to be above exposure limits set by available domestic and international regulatory bodies.”
Yet when the House Subcommittee issued a report entitled, “Baby Foods Are Tainted with Dangerous Levels of Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium, and Mercury” on February 4, 2021, the complaint says, “it found that many of the products by the country’s largest commercial baby food manufacturers, including Plum, ‘contain significant levels of toxic heavy metals, including arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury, which can endanger infant neurological development.”
The Subcommittee requested the cooperation of a number of baby food makers in sharing their testing results and internal standards. Plum was one of three companies who refused.
The complaint quotes the Subcommittee as saying that, instead “of producing any substantive information, [Plum] provided a spreadsheet self-declaring that every one of its products ‘meets criteria.’”
The House Report did cite an earlier report by an organization called Healthy Babies Bright Futures (HBBF) which also investigated and tested baby food products. The complaint alleges that this investigation found that “some Plum products tested high in arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury. The HBBF Report also found troubling levels of perchlorate, a neurotoxin, in some Plum baby food products.”
“Even after being notified in this manner,” the complaint alleges, “Plum failed to take adequate measures to sell baby food products without unsafe levels of heavy metals and perchlorate, or to adequately warn consumers.”
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Consumer
Most Recent Case Event
Plum Baby Food and Heavy Metal Content Complaint
June 22, 2021
Plum, PBC is a subsidiary of the Campbell Soup Company that makes baby food. The complaint for this class action alleges, “Plum’s baby food products have been shown to contain significant levels of arsenic, mercury, lead, and cadmium—all known to pose health risks to humans and particularly infants.” Plum does not warn consumers about this, the complaint alleges, but claims that its foods are safe and healthy.
Plum Baby Food and Heavy Metal Content ComplaintCase Event History
Plum Baby Food and Heavy Metal Content Complaint
June 22, 2021
Plum, PBC is a subsidiary of the Campbell Soup Company that makes baby food. The complaint for this class action alleges, “Plum’s baby food products have been shown to contain significant levels of arsenic, mercury, lead, and cadmium—all known to pose health risks to humans and particularly infants.” Plum does not warn consumers about this, the complaint alleges, but claims that its foods are safe and healthy.
Plum Baby Food and Heavy Metal Content Complaint