For Immediate Release:
June 7, 2021
Contact: Matt Baca — (505) 270-7148
Major companies acknowledge that foods made for the littlest and most vulnerable consumers
contain high levels of neurotoxic contaminants known to be associated with developmental
injuries; lawsuit follows congressional investigation and published report on baby-food toxins
SANTA FE, NM–Attorney General Hector Balderas filed suit today against a number of babyfood makers and major retail chains, alleging that they market and sell products in the State that
are tainted with dangerous levels of arsenic, lead, mercury, and cadmium. Filed in First Judicial
District Court in Santa Fe, the Attorney General’s complaint asserts that defendants including
Beech-Nut, Nurture, Hain Celestial, WalMart, and Kroger have violated consumer protection
laws by promoting and selling certain contaminated products as safe and appropriate for babies,
infants, and young children, “precisely the population most vulnerable to the serious adverse
neurodevelopmental effects and other adverse health effects known to be associated with
exposure to or consumption of” toxic chemicals and heavy metals.
“Any company that harms New Mexican children will be held accountable,” said Attorney
General Balderas. “Knowingly marketing toxic products to children in a state that already has the
worst child welfare outcomes in the nation is unacceptable and outrageous, and so we are taking
this action on behalf of all New Mexican families.”
The complaint charges the defendants with violating New Mexico’s Unfair Practices and False
Advertising Acts and public nuisance statutes, and also asserts claims for negligence, failure to
warn, and design/manufacturing defect. The State is seeking damages, restitution, civil penalties,
and other remedies.
The Attorney General’s lawsuit follows a report published in February 2021 by a subcommittee
of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee, titled “Baby Foods Are
Tainted With Dangerous Levels Of Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium, And Mercury.” The product of a
year-long investigation, the report noted that Nurture, Hain, and Beech-Nut complied with
congressional document requests, but WalMart did not—leading investigators to express concern
that its “lack of cooperation might be obscuring the presence of even higher levels of toxic heavy
metals in their baby food products than their competitors’ products.”
The report stated that concentrations of lead, arsenic, mercury, and cadmium acknowledged by
the food-makers to be in their baby products “are multiples higher than allowed under existing
regulations for other products.” For example, the FDA, EPA, and WHO have set allowable levels
of toxins in bottled and drinking water, but, congressional investigators write, “The test results of
baby foods and their ingredients eclipse those levels: including results up to 91 times the arsenic
level, up to 177 times the lead level, up to 69 times the cadmium level, and up to 5 times the
mercury level.” According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a division of the
U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, arsenic, lead, and mercury, respectively, are the top
three most dangerous environmental toxins to human health. Along with cadmium (number 7 on
the ATSDR list), they have long been known to cause a wide range of deleterious health effects
on babies and young children, notably in cognitive, behavioral, and neurological development.
The Attorney General’s complaint lists a number of individual products manufactured or sold by
the defendants that, according to their own internal documents, contain potentially dangerous
concentrations of lead, arsenic, mercury, and/or cadmium:
• Beech-Nut, based in New York, disclosed at least 38 such products or ingredients;
• New York-based Nurture, which sells in New Mexico under the brand name Happy
Baby, disclosed 16;
• Hain, also based in New York and selling products in New Mexico called Earth’s Best
and Earth’s Best Sesame Street, disclosed 22.
International retailer WalMart, based in Arkansas, has more than 100 outlets in New Mexico,
including seven under the Sam’s Club name. It manufactures baby food labeled Parent’s Choice.
Kroger and its affiliates operate more than 2,700 markets nationwide under a variety of local
names. They make and distribute a baby food in stores and online called Simple Truth Organic
that has been shown to be contaminated with the above-mentioned toxins.
In their advertising and marketing materials, these manufacturers variously promote their foods
as safe, healthy, impurity-free, “rigorously tested,” and “made with love.” Nurture publicizes one
of its food lines as “mom-founded and -operated.”
A copy of the complaint, as filed, is attached.
