Federal investigative reports recently revealed that toxic levels of heavy metals such as arsenic, lead and cadmium have been found in mass-produced baby food. Levels in many baby foods--including some labeled "organic"--were found to be much higher than the regulatory limit for products such as bottled water. That baby food is largely unregulated in U.S. markets is unconscionable. Babies' high levels of body fat cells store chemicals and toxins at higher levels than adults, and their cells reproduce at much faster rates, meaning that toxin load early in life can be particularly damaging. Many parents purchase organic products in hopes of reducing the chemical load ingested by their children, and deserve to know if those products are not as healthy as they seem.

The New York Times reported that three major producers, Walmart's Parent's Choice and Parent's Choice Organics Brands, Sprout Organic Foods, and Campbell Soup Company's Plum Organics line, failed to respond to requests for test data. Plum Organics is the only company so far to release Consumer Product Safety statements regarding the heavy metals investigation. The company claims to have had full cooperation with the Congressional Committee and pledges to support ongoing efforts to begin regulating the baby food industry. While this is commendable, parents deserve transparency NOW about current products on shelves, not vague statements about meeting regulations that are far too lax or nonexistent in the first place. This petition asks each of these companies to increase transparency of their testing results and work on significantly improving standards of heavy metal content to meet or exceed the standards for other products. A recent Consumer Reports study showed that safe levels of heavy metals are possible to achieve across many types of baby food products (https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/heavy-metals-in-baby-food/).