Walmart Hit with Class Action Alleging Parent’s Choice Baby Foods Contain Toxic Heavy Metals

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A proposed class action claims Walmart has misled consumers by failing to disclose that certain Parent’s Choice-brand baby food products contain toxic heavy metals in amounts “above what is considered safe for babies.”

The 24-page case centers on a February 2021 report by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy in which it was revealed that unsafe levels of inorganic arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury had been detected in several popular brands of baby foods. Most of the baby food manufacturers named in the report—including Nurture, Inc.; Beech-Nut Nutrition Company; Hain Celestial Group, Inc.; Gerber Products Company; and Campbell Soup Company—already face litigation over the report’s findings.

The lawsuit against Walmart contends that consumers who have purchased the mega-retailer’s Parent’s Choice baby food products were injured financially in that they would never have bought the items had Walmart truthfully disclosed the alleged presence of heavy metals.

The suit relays that exposure to arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury can cause a number of “adverse neurological, cognitive, and other developmental consequences” in babies, and provides “no established health benefit.” Per the suit, there is no acceptable level of toxic heavy metals that can be found in baby foods.

“Plaintiff and the Class members purchased Baby Food Products manufactured and sold by Walmart, unaware that Walmart products potentially contain Toxic Heavy Metals at levels well above what is considered safe for babies,” the complaint states. “Had Walmart disclosed the Toxic Heavy Metal content on its product labels, or otherwise warned that its products could contain levels of Toxic Heavy Metals considered unsafe, neither Plaintiff nor any other reasonable consumer would have purchased Walmart’s products.”

According to the lawsuit, reasonable consumers had every reason to believe that Walmart’s Parent’s Choice baby food products would be free from unsafe levels of toxic heavy metals considering the foods were marketed as in compliance with government regulations and containing “only safe ingredients.” The lawsuit argues, however, that Walmart’s advertising statements and marketing were “incomplete, misleading and deceptive” with regard to the levels of heavy metals in its baby food products. Consumers, for their part, lack the “scientific knowledge and resources” necessary to determine whether the products contained heavy metals, and were therefore “duped . . . into believing [Walmart’s] products were safe,” the case alleges.

The case says the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy of the Committee on Oversight and Reform sought to investigate in November 2019 concerns about the levels of heavy metals in baby foods and requested internal records from Walmart and several other baby food manufacturers. Based on its investigation, the congressional subcommittee found not only that commercial baby food products contain “dangerous levels” of heavy metals, but that manufacturers such as Walmart were “compounding the problem” of naturally occurring heavy metals by adding ingredients such as vitamin and mineral pre-mix that contain “high levels” of the toxic substances, the suit relays. Per the case, the subcommittee noted that Walmart had failed to cooperate with its investigation and “refused to produce any documents showing its internal testing policies or results.” For this reason, the report expressed concern that the defendant “might be obscuring the presence of even higher levels of toxic heavy metals in [its] baby food products” than those of its competitors, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit alleges that although the FDA has set a “maximum allowable level” of 10 parts per billion (ppb) of arsenic in bottled and tap water—and noted that there is “no established safe level” for the consumption of inorganic arsenic by babies—a Parent’s Choice product was found by the subcommittee to contain inorganic arsenic levels of 66 ppb.

Moreover, while there exists “a growing consensus among health experts” that lead levels in baby foods should not exceed 1 ppb, independent testing showed that certain Parent’s Choice products contained between 5.2 to 26.9 ppb of lead, the suit alleges.

Testing also revealed that Parent’s Choice products contained up to 26.1 ppb of cadmium when the congressional subcommittee “identified proposed and existing cadmium standards including 5 ppb for drinking water,” according to the complaint.

While the EPA limits mercury levels in drinking water to 2 ppb, Parent’s Choice products contained up to 2.05 ppb of the metal, the suit says.

The lawsuit notes that there are currently no federal standards for lead, cadmium and mercury in baby foods, and that the regulation of inorganic arsenic in baby foods is “limited.”

The case looks to represent anyone in the U.S. who purchased Walmart’s baby food products, which are defined in the complaint to include “Baby Food Products that contain Toxic Heavy Metals.” Also proposed in the suit are state-specific subclasses for buyers who purchased the baby food products in Vermont and Kentucky.

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