Gerber sells lead-contaminated baby food, complaint claims
Gerber is under fire for allegedly selling lead-contaminated baby food.
Gerber is under fire for allegedly selling lead-contaminated baby food.
Legal action has been filed against the company in California.
It claims that a serving of certain Gerber products exposes a six, seven or eight month old baby to three times the amount of lead an adult can safely consume in a day.
The lawsuit is being filed by environmental lawyer Vineet Dubey, on behalf of a company that tests food for contamination.
“They’ve been sleeping behind the wheel for 10, 20, 30, 40 years, and think of the number of children who have been poisoned during that time,” Dubey said.
The lawsuit concerns baby food made from Gerber’s sweet potatoes, carrots and peas, as well as baby food made from sweet potatoes, apples and cinnamon.
“The scariest part about it is that Gerber sells this on their ‘Subscribe & Save’ model, where parents can have 10 units delivered to their homes each month. What if a parent feeds 10 units in one? months, basically this whole month, their child was poisoned by lead, ”Dubey said.
Congress is working on legislation to force the Food and Drug Administration to regulate toxic metals in baby foods.
A congressional report released earlier this year found that the most popular brands of baby food contained dangerous levels of toxic metals.
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More than 80 lawsuits have been filed against the baby food companies named in the report, including Gerber.
“In order to involve every baby food company, in order to protect American children, not just California children, Congress needs to take action on this and they need to do it as soon as possible,” Dubey said.
The lawsuit was filed in California because the state has standards for lead in food.
Dubey says, the hope is that if Gerber changes his food in California, it will change nationally.
We reached out to Gerber for comment on the lawsuit.
They haven’t responded yet.
In the meantime, Dubey recommends that parents stay away from baby foods containing sweet potatoes to avoid potential lead exposure.