On June 9, 2010 the Environmental Law Foundation, a nonprofit based in the Bay Area, filed Notices of Violation of California Proposition 65 Toxics Right to Know law, alleging that lead, a highly toxic chemical for children, was found in a variety of foods and drinks for children and babies (pdf).
Yum! How about a little lead with your juice?
The specific food categories included apple juice, grape juice, packaged pears and peaches (including baby food), and fruit cocktail. ELF purchased dozens of brands of juices and fruit products around California and sent them to an EPA-certified lab in Berkeley and testing results showed that many individual servings of apple juice, grape juice, packaged peaches and pears and fruit cocktail contained lead above the federal daily limit established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for young kids.
Many of the brands tested were popular organics. Plenty of products that were not organic were also found to contain unsafe levels of lead, but since I promote organics here, I’m just going to list the organic brands you may need to be concerned about…
- 365 Everyday Value Organic 100% Juice Concord Grapes
- Earth’s Best Organics Apple Juice
- Full Circle Organic Apple Juice
- O Organics Organic Grape Juice from concentrate
- O Organics Organic Unfiltered Apple Juice Not From Concentrate
- R.W. Knudsen Organic Just Concord
- Santa Cruz Organic Concord Grape Juice
- Trader Joe’s Certified Organic Apple Juice, pasteurized
- Trader Joe’s Concord Grape Juice made from fresh pressed organic concord grapes
The results were based on testing performed on 398 samples of 146 different branded products in the five categories noted above (apple juice, grape juice, packaged peaches and pears and fruit cocktail). For a full list of all companies and products involved see the ELF notice letter (pdf).
Why is lead in these products?
According to ELF and other sources, lead has been released into the environment for years from decades of lead-based pesticide application, use of leaded gasoline and lead paint, and burning of coal in power plants. The lead in the environment then can make its way into the food supply. However, ELF notes that not every food category does contain lead; even with the environmental leeching aspects at play.
ELF notes:
For about 20 years ELF has fought for consumer protection from lead exposures in faucets and plumbing fixtures, drinking water, rental housing, playgrounds and most recently in the food supply. Through enforcing the law, ELF has learned two things: 1) when pressed to do so, companies can almost always reduce or eliminate lead from their products, and 2) because lead poses such a threat to public health, particularly children, we all have an obligation to reduce exposures wherever we can. ELF believes that the lead legacy in the food supply is fundamentally the result of shortsighted public health, energy, and food-safety policies.
David Schardt, a senior nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group that tracks food safety issues reviewed this issue over at NPR and told the news channel, “If you look at the apple juice as if there are some manufacturers who managed to avoid the lead entirely. And it would be interesting to find out how they’re managing to do that. Are they choosing different fruits, fruits from different farmers who have avoided lead contamination of their products? Or do their manufacturing processes, are they of such a kind that they avoid adding lead to the food that they’re processing?”
How dangerious is lead?
The FDA set the current federal limits for lead nearly two decades ago – which is appalling.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends to parents that there is no safe level of exposure to lead when it comes to children.
OSHA notes that lead exposure adversely affects numerous body systems and causes forms of health impairment and disease that arise after periods of exposure as short as days (acute exposure) or as long as several years (chronic exposure). Symptoms include loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, constipation, difficulty in sleeping, fatigue, moodiness, headache, joint or muscle aches, anemia, and decreased sexual drive. Long term (chronic) overexposure to lead may result in severe damage to the blood-forming, nervous, urinary, and reproductive systems.
The EPA has a long list of lead related health problems that are connected directly to babies and young children.
What the companies say:
I looked around and most companies accused of excess lead aren’t saying anything yet, although the NPR piece points to some companies saying they don’t have enough info or that they’ll be running some tests. I didn’t expect companies like Safeway to comment on their O Organics but did expect to see something about the issue up at Santa Cruz, who in spite of being owned by a major corporation (J. M. Smucker Company), I’ve been a fan of (my son loves their juice). I also expected to see something about this at Trader Joe’s and Earth’s Best – but no.
It’ll be interesting to see what companies will say and do with regards to this. Seriously, I’m getting to the point where I’m thinking we can’t trust anyone anymore to tell consumers what’s up. It’s like no one cares what toxins and chemicals are affecting our families. It’s so frustrating.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
My baby has been eating gerber’s pear, that is only product on the list we use. So I e-mailed gerber and they replied asking me to call. when I called them all they had to say is that they are aware of this report but all their products are tested and safe and that there’s no need to discard or stop buying their products. Now I’m confused who to believe, I think we’ll stop buying the one product just to be sure. Their response was weird too, why not just say what you got to say in the e-mail?
I’m going to write a much longer response to this in post form – because it’s a 100% excellent question. For now though, the short answer is you can’t trust many companies. Especially companies out to make lots o’ cash. You cannot trust big names to always tell you the truth. For example, 3 decades ago Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act (TCSA) but to date the EPA has tested only 200 of the more than 80,000 chemical compounds affected by this act. These are chemicals you get in everyday home products like cleaners. The EPA, Congress and cleaning companies all dropped the ball here. Right now, if you read this post – http://www.growingagreenfamily.com/strawberry-cancer-update-two-sample-letters/ – you’ll see that even big names like the California Department of Pesticide Regulation will override scientific evidence that a pesticide causes cancer so long as companies market strawberries can make a dime. Even smaller green companies aren’t immune. Like when SIGG outright lied about their bottles NOT containing BPA.
Nestlé who owns Gerber has misused products for a very long time hence the huge ban on Nestle by many – http://info.babymilkaction.org/nestlefree.
It’s hard to trust anyone. In this case what I think is that safe is always better than sorry. If one organization gets research that says there is lead in a product and NONE of those companies step up to publicly question the research it makes you think that maybe they’re not stepping up because they can’t. Consumer laws surrounding food are terribly shoddy and so it’s best to play it safe. I think more research is needed all around regarding the lead issue, but until I see more research I have to go with what I have. ELF has nothing to gain by targeting Gerber and Gerber should conduct their own new tests using an impartial party and release them to the public, since they aren’t doing so it makes me concerned.
If the source of lead is from the environment then the apples themselves must also contain lead. Should we stop eating the raw fruit? Has there been any testing done on the apples.
There can be lead contamination in fruit. Lead has been released into the environment from decades of lead-based pesticide application, use of leaded gasoline and lead paint, and burning of coal in power plants. Lead from the environment can, no surprise, make its way into the food supply.
In this case, the researchers weren’t sure where the lead issue started. There was speculation that the companies who didn’t have lead in their juice were, one, choosing fruits from farmers who have avoided lead contamination or that they had better, safer, lead-free manufacturing processes. The ELF notes that the data on lead contamination has been public for a long time. But that, in the case of these products, “ELF can only surmise precise sources of lead, and it will doubtless differ from category to category, even product to product.”
If there are known higher lead levels in a product, then yes, I’d avoid it. Would I avoid fruit entirely due to a maybe possibility of lead – no. There are tons of dangers in the world, but avoiding eating produce won’t help combat the issues – just make you less healthy.
Over the past few months, I have been struck by the number of US Federal lawmakers (mostly Republicans) who have gone on record saying that the food supply is safe based upon their observation that almost nobody dies from food poisoning. The toxic E. coli epidemic in Germany seems to have stopped such self-serving pronouncements. Lately, there has been evidence of lead in honey because Chinese honey have, apparently, intentionally mislabeled product for export purposes. Food manufacturers are subject to regulation but I don’t know of one food retailer anywhere in the country that tests product for sale in their shops. Republicans have already cut FDA’s budget and some Republicans would like to “defund” FDA altogether AND repeal the Food Safety Modernization Act signed into law this past January. Suppose my company, Food Safety Analysis, were willing to test the lead content of foods directly for consumers using commonly accepted and validated procedures – would I get any takers? Testing costs money, that is why local health departments and federal regulators shy away. For the consumer, how high a price is too high? Would consumers band together to share the costs? After the results were in, would they report suspect findings to FDA? Would they contact their Congressional Representatives and demand legislative action on foods shown to have unacceptably high levels of lead? Politically, many of us shake our heads in disapproval of what we perceive of as European socialism. Yet, the reason the US has been inundated with lead-tainted honey is because Europe tests the stuff and won’t let it into the EU. It comes here because the NoGoodNiks know American import testing is spotty. So, if we politically demand “de-regulation,” because we don’t trust our government or because we feel it is incompetent, are we ready, willing and able to take on regulatory affairs duties for ourselves, on behalf of our children? Let me know, yea or nay. mikem@foodsafetyanalysis.com