On January 9, Florida Governor De Santis announced that the Florida Department of Health detected "elevated levels of heavy metals" in 16 of the 24 infant formula products it had tested. Governor De Santis claimed that these results indicated "systemic problems in sourcing or manufacturing."
Florida published the test results on a newly launched website, ExposingFoodToxins.com. The website claims that the infant formulas were evaluated against "the maximum daily limit" for arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury "set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Food and Drug Administration." This is a curious claim, because neither FDA nor EPA has set heavy metal limits for infant formula. Regardless, we expect the plaintiff's bar to latch onto the Florida test results and the way the website frames them
The announcement comes amid heightened federal and state attention to infant formula safety. FDA has already signaled increased oversight in this area through initiatives such as Operation Stork Speed, and Florida's actions may further accelerate state-level involvement. We are closely monitoring whether Florida will take additional action and whether other states will launch their own infant formula initiatives. If you have any questions, we are here to help.