Baby Food Makers Sued for Excessive Lead

SAN FRANCISCO Baron and Budd P.C., along with the Law Offices of April Strauss, filed a lawsuit on behalf of the non-profit Environmental Law Foundation (ELF) against more than 100 manufacturers of food and beverage products for babies, toddlers and children alleging their products contain elevated levels of lead.

Filed under Californias Proposition 65, the lawsuit would require that manufacturers place warnings to consumers on their products that they would be exposed to lead through the ingestion of their products. Some of the companies named in the lawsuit include Wal-Mart, Welchs, Target, Gerber, Dole, Safeway, Del Monte, Kroger and Whole Foods.

ELF collected and tested every brand of particular types of childrens and baby foods it could locate in California, including more than 400 samples of 146 different brands.  Testing revealed a number of foods and beverages marketed to babies and children contain elevated levels of lead, including baby foods made of or with carrots, sweet potatoes, peaches or pears, and packaged peaches and pears, fruit cocktail, grape juice and peach juice for children and adults.

Scientists agree that there is no safe level of exposure to lead," said Laura Baughman, head of Baron and Budds Proposition 65 litigation section. Children under the age of 7 are particularly vulnerable to lead, which can cause permanent learning or behavioral disorders, delayed growth, diminished IQ and, at very high levels, serious, irreversible brain damage."