EDF Health

Unleaded Food: FDA acts quickly on contaminated applesauce

By Liora Fiksel, Project Manager, Healthy Communities and Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative / Published: November 17, 2023

What’s Happening?

The North Carolina Departments of Health & Human Services and Agriculture & Consumer Services identified WanaBana cinnamon applesauce pouches as a source for elevated blood lead levels in multiple children. They found extraordinarily high concentrations of lead (1,900- 5,100 ppb) in the products, leading to the identification of at least 34 cases of elevated blood lead levels across 22 states to date.

On October 28, 2023, FDA issued a safety alert advising that “parents and caregivers of toddlers and young children who may have consumed WanaBana apple cinnamon fruit puree pouches should contact their child’s healthcare provider about getting a blood test.” Three days later, the company issued a voluntary recall.

As the recall expanded, FDA transferred the investigation to its Coordinated Outbreak Response & Evaluation (CORE) Network to determine the source of lead contamination and whether additional products are linked to illnesses.

Brands under a voluntary recall. Photo credit: FDA

Brands under a voluntary recall. Photo credit: FDA

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Posted in Chemical exposure, FDA, Food, Health hazards, Public health / Tagged , , , | Authors: , / Read 1 Response

FDA has new funding to start modernizing how it assesses food chemical risks

By Joanna Slaney / Published: April 22, 2022

Joanna Slaney, Sr. Director, Federal Affairs; and Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative

For the first time in recent memory Congress approved funds for FDA specifically to address food safety from potentially dangerous chemicals that may present health hazards. Now it’s time for the agency to get to work.

Congress appropriated $7 million for “Emerging Chemical and Toxicology Issues” and $11 million for “Maternal and Infant Health and Nutrition” for the current fiscal year. While these numbers are below the agency requests of $19.7 million and $18 million respectively, the funds can help FDA meet its stated goals to bring on new staff and to:

  • “Enhance and update its approach to chemicals—both those directly added as food ingredients and those that come into the food supply through food contact and environmental contamination” and
  • Address issues of concern that include lead, cadmium, and arsenic in children’s food.

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Posted in FDA, Food, Public health / Tagged , , | Comments are closed

The new FDA Commissioner has a full plate; here are 3 steps he can take to keep focused on food safety

By Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative / Published: February 15, 2022

Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals.

The U.S. Senate today voted to return Robert Califf to the role of FDA Commissioner, bringing needed leadership to an agency that plays a vital role in protecting public health. 

While Dr. Califf faces historic challenges in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic and the opioid epidemic, he also has a tremendous opportunity to elevate the agency’s important role in protecting the public from unsafe chemicals in food. 

We put together a list of three things Dr. Califf and the FDA have the authority to do right now to keep problematic chemicals out of our food:  Read More »

Posted in BPA, FDA, Food, Lead, Public health / Tagged , , , , , , | Authors: / Comments are closed

Eight steps to strengthen FDA’s Closer to Zero plan to reduce toxic metals in children’s food

By Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative / Published: December 21, 2021

Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals

EDF this week submitted comments to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), applauding the agency’s recent activities related to its Closer to Zero Action Plan for reducing toxic elements in children’s food and outlining specific steps to strengthen the FDA’s action.

The agency’s November 18 public meeting on the action plan included excellent presentations by scientists as well as an extended public comment period and an opportunity to provide written follow-up comments. We also appreciate the December 1 colloquium focusing on the latest evidence showing the significant risks posed by arsenic to the development of children’s nervous and immune systems.

Our primary takeaways from these meetings are that:

  • There is an urgent need for FDA and industry to do more to reduce lead, arsenic, and cadmium levels in food that children eat, given the evidence that there are no safe levels of exposure;
  • FDA faces a challenge in effectively communicating to the public about the risks from even relatively low-level, short-term exposure to lead and arsenic;
  • Folic acid and iron play an important role in reducing – but not eliminating – the harm from these toxic elements; and
  • The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) play a critical supporting role in the overall effort to protect children from these toxic elements.

The Closer to Zero plan is a step forward because it commits FDA to specific actions and general deadlines for the first time. In our comments, we identify eight areas for improvement with specific suggestions for each that we think the agency can and should adopt to strengthen its efforts. These are:

  • Reduce the maximum daily intake level / IRL for lead from 3 to 2 µg per day for children and from 12.5 to 9 µg per day for adults as the next step towards the Closer to Zero goal.
  • Reverse the flawed practice of evaluating lead content of each food in isolation and allowing those with high levels to remain in commerce. Instead, FDA should focus on comparing the product to other lot numbers or private brand to its competitors as recommended by 22 state attorneys general.
  • Release the Total Diet Study results for 2018-19 cycle and investigate outliers.
  • Define “as low as possible” based on best performing ingredients or products in a class.
  • Define “children’s food” to include foods commonly consumed by children younger than six years of age.
  • Be consistent on public health messaging and avoid phrases like “no immediate health hazard.”
  • Move up deadlines for arsenic and cadmium action levels.
  • Add milestone for compliance verification with action levels and preventive controls.

We look forward to continuing to work with FDA to ensure that levels of toxic metals in children’s food really do get closer to zero.

Posted in FDA, Food / Comments are closed

10 ways the incoming FDA Commissioner should protect people from toxic chemicals in food

By Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative / Published: April 22, 2021

Tom Neltner, Chemicals Policy Director.

The FDA’s critical role in the COVID-19 pandemic has brought intense interest in whom President Biden will nominate to lead the agency as its new commissioner.

While COVID-19 is the priority, the FDA obviously has many vital other responsibilities. Though it doesn’t get that much attention, one of the important roles of the agency is to protect the public from unsafe chemicals in food. Frankly, their record has been disappointing, but the new administration has an opportunity to fix some key problems that scientists and doctors have been warning us about for years.

Here are ten things the new FDA Commissioner should do to keep unsafe chemicals out of our food. The list ranges from actions on specific chemicals to broader reforms.

  1. Stop letting industry decide for themselves, in secret, whether chemicals are safe and can be added to food. EDF, represented by Earthjustice, and the Center for Food Safety, have sued the agency to close the dangerous “Generally Recognized as Safe” loophole.
  2. Systematically reassess dangerous food chemicals it has allowed to be used in food based on new information. The FDA approved the use of many chemicals in food decades ago, and we now have evidence that some of these are unsafe. A chemical shouldn’t be given a forever approval. There needs to be a systematic process to review the scientific evidence, especially when new risks come to light.
  3. Ban the use of perchlorate, an ingredient in rocket fuel, from use in plastic packaging and equipment that comes into contact with food. Perchlorate gets into food, and exposure is particularly dangerous for pregnant women, infants, and young children, as it has been linked to developmental delays, reduced growth, and impaired learning abilities. We’ve sued the FDA to get this chemical out of food, and the case is pending.
  4. Comply with its 60-year-old Congressional mandate to look at the cumulative effect of chemical exposures people have when deciding whether to approve the use of related chemicals in food. EDF’s investigation of 900 approval decisions found that just one followed this common-sense mandate. The reality is that no one is exposed to just one chemical – so the agency shouldn’t be analyzing chemicals’ safety as if that were the case. FDA must respond to a petition filed by EDF and other organizations demanding that the agency follow the law and assess chemicals as classes.
  5. Drive down levels of heavy metals in food. Over the last decades, evidence has emerged of concerning levels of lead, arsenic, and cadmium in food consumed by children, such as rice, juice, and root crops like sweet potatoes and carrots. The FDA should move quickly and aggressively on its new commitment to set limits on heavy metals in food children eat and should also set limits for other food.
  6. Use modern science when evaluating if a chemical poses a health risk. The FDA is stuck in the past by relying on outdated, less accurate scientific methods and ignoring the evolving information we now know about chemical exposure. You wouldn’t insist on driving a car the Flintstones drove just because that was the first car ever.
  7. Prohibit lead from being added to materials that contact food, such as the tin that lines metal cans, and tighten limits for lead in bottled water. EDF’s analysis of FDA data found lead in 98% of certain canned fruits compared to 3% in fresh or frozen types. We’ve sent a formal petition to FDA requesting it immediately take action to ban these harmful and unnecessary uses of lead. Though it’s not a food safety issue, the FDA should also reject a challenge to its decision to ban lead acetate in hair dye. That challenge has put the FDA decision on hold, meaning that people are literally still putting lead on their head!
  8. Prohibit ortho-phthalates from being added to food packaging and processing equipment. These chemicals are known to disrupt hormones and harm brain development. The FDA is significantly overdue in meeting its legally required deadline to make a decision based on a petition from 2016 by EDF and nine other consumer, public health, and environmental groups to ban these chemicals.
  9. Be more transparent about the decisions it is making on chemicals in food. Information about FDA decisions should be publicly available without a Freedom of Information Act request and a months-long wait to learn more about agency actions on the chemicals in our food supply.
  10. Take aggressive action on harmful PFAS in food packaging and processing equipment. PFAS (Per- and poly-fluorinated alkyl substances) can provide water and grease resistance to paper and paperboard and can also leach into food. Growing evidence links PFAS to a wide range of serious health effects – from developmental problems to cancer. And now we know that many types of PFAS bioaccumulate in the body.
Posted in FDA, Food, Health policy, Public health, Regulation / Tagged , , , , | Comments are closed

A closer look at FDA’s “Closer to Zero” plan to reduce for heavy metals in children’s food

By Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative / Published: April 21, 2021

Tom Neltner, J.D. is the Chemicals Policy Director.

This month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its “Closer to Zero” action plan to reduce exposure to heavy metals in foods for babies and young children. The plan, released in response to a recent House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform report and the introduction of the Baby Food Safety Act in both the House and the Senate, is a step forward since it commits the agency to specific actions and general deadlines for the first time. However, there is room for improvement, specifically the agency should:

  1. Explicitly consider the cumulative effect of heavy metals on neurodevelopment when setting limits.
  2. Move up deadlines for draft action levels for arsenic and cadmium;
  3. Be consistent in messaging that there is no safe level of lead in children’s blood;
  4. Define what “as low as possible” and “children’s food” means as soon as possible;
  5. Be transparent by posting testing data quickly; and
  6. Add milestones for compliance verification with action levels and preventive controls.

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Posted in FDA, Food, Lead, Public health / Tagged , , , , , | Authors: / Comments are closed