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Baby food said to cause ADHD, other damage to children

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Parents alleged negligence, manufacturing defects

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Companies say 'heavy metals' occur naturally

By Jonathan Stempel

April 3 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge said several companies

including Walmart ( WMT ), Beech-Nut and Gerber must face a

nationwide lawsuit claiming that toxic heavy metals contaminated

their baby food, causing brain and neurodevelopmental damage to

children who ate it.

In a decision on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline

Scott Corley said parents can try to prove that defective

manufacturing, negligence and failure to warn about more than

600 baby food products caused their children to suffer autism

spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Parents said some defendants failed to adhere to internal

limits about how much arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury in baby

food was safe, while others never addressed the issue.

Corley said this made it plausible to claim that some baby

food was unsafe, if safety criteria were not followed. The San

Francisco-based judge also said no "ironclad rule" required the

parents to allege that toxicity crossed a particular threshold.

Beech-Nut is owned by Nestle, Gerber is owned by

Switzerland's Hero Group, and Walmart ( WMT ) sold its baby food under

its own name.

Other brands in the case include Hain Celestial's ( HAIN )

Earth's Best Organics, Danone's Happy Baby and Happy

Tot, Sun-Maid Growers of California's Plum Organics and Neptune

Wellness Solutions' Sprout Organic.

Lawyers for the defendant companies did not immediately

respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

The companies have said their baby food is safe. They also

argued that heavy metals are naturally present in the

environment, and parents "cannot simply allege that detectable

levels of heavy metals make baby food defective."

R. Brent Wisner, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said he was

pleased with the decision.

"Selling baby food with lead and arsenic is simply not OK,

and with the court's ruling, we are one step closer to holding

these companies accountable for their decades of malfeasance,"

Wisner said in an email.

Parents sued after a 2021 report by a U.S. House of

Representatives subcommittee on economic and consumer policy

said "dangerous" levels of heavy metals in some baby food could

cause neurological damage.

Corley dismissed Campbell's, which sold Plum

Organics to Sun-Maid in 2021, as a defendant.

Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and its Whole Foods unit have also been

sued for selling Hain and Danone baby food.

The case is In re: Baby Food Products Liability Litigation,

U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No.

24-md-03101.