A new California law requiring QR codes on baby food packaging to link to heavy metal testing results will impact consumers nationwide. The law aims to increase transparency and address concerns about heavy metal exposure in infants and young children.
Beginning Wednesday, baby food makers selling products in California will have to make a major shift toward transparency and provide a QR code on their packaging that takes consumers to test results for the presence in their product of four heavy metals : lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium. Even low levels of exposure to these compounds can cause serious and often irreversible damage to young children's brain development.
The change, required under a California law passed by the Legislature in 2023, will impact consumers nationwide. Because companies are unlikely to create separate packaging for the California market, QR codes are likely to be present on products sold across the country, and consumers everywhere will be able to view the heavy metal concentrations. While companies are required to start printing new packaging and publishing testing results of products manufactured beginning in January, it may take time for the products to hit the grocery shelves. The law was inspired by a 2021 congressional investigation that found dangerously high levels of heavy metals in packaged foods marketed to babies and toddlers. Baby foods and their ingredients had up to 91 times the arsenic level, up to 177 times the lead level, up to 69 times the cadmium level, and up to five times the mercury level that the U.S. allows to be present in bottled or drinking water, the investigation found. About half of dietary lead exposure for babies under age 1 comes from packaged baby foods, and an additional 36% from infant formula, according to a study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The California law, AB899, does not include infant formula. The FDA does not set maximum allowable heavy metal levels for baby food but is in the process of coming up with 'action levels' for heavy metals — the levels at which the agency might consider additional actions, which could include discussions with the manufacturer about lowering the level or asking them to pull products from the market
Heavy Metals Baby Food California Law Transparency Consumer Health
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