CA attorney general Harris: Ginger Snap Cookies are Hazardous to your health.

Posted By CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA -  On the heels of the EPA’s Katrina in Flint Michigan, the California attorney genera; Kamala Harris  announced that  because “Nabisco’s Ginger Snap cookies posed a serious public health threat, potentially impacting the brain development of our children,” a consent judgment was filed Thursday in Orange County Superior Court and is awaiting approval by a judge. 

Attorney General Kamala D. Harris, in conjunction with eleven California District Attorneys and the nonprofit Center for Environmental Health, today announced a landmark settlement with food industry giant Mondelēz International, Inc., formerly Kraft Foods, for selling ginger snap cookies containing lead in excess of California limits without the warning required by California’s Proposition 65.  A consent judgment was filed Thursday in Orange County Superior Court and is awaiting approval by a judge. 

According to Harris, “The levels of lead found in Nabisco’s Ginger Snap cookies posed a serious public health threat, potentially impacting the brain development of our children. Parents need accurate information to make educated food choices for their children.  .”

Under the settlement, Mondelēz will agree to strict product sourcing and testing protocols that limit lead in its Nabisco Ginger Snap cookies to no more than 30 parts per billion per serving and will pay approximately $750,000 in civil penalties, costs and attorneys’ fees.  Additionally, the company will hire a food quality auditor to train personnel, will fund ongoing independent auditing of its products to monitor for lead, and will monitor supply chains to ensure raw materials are within acceptable limits. 

Lead is a neurotoxin that primarily affects the central nervous system, putting children with developing brains at a greater risk of suffering from the neurotoxic effects of lead.  While no safe lead exposure threshold has been identified, California’s Proposition 65 requires a warning to consumers if they are exposed to 0.5 micrograms of lead per serving per day. The FDA recommends that children do not ingest candies that contain more than 100 parts per billion of lead.

The Attorney General’s office and District Attorneys began their investigation of Nabisco Ginger Snaps in 2013, after a Center for Environmental Health investigation into these and other cookies containing ginger.  Testing revealed that a serving of Nabisco brand Ginger Snaps contained lead levels up to 9 times the level that requires a warning under Proposition 65.  Mondelēz was not providing any Proposition 65 warnings to its customers.

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Mondelēz is the world’s largest manufacturer of processed snack foods. Mondelēz brands include Nabisco, Oreo, Cadbury and Trident.  Nabisco brand ginger snap cookies were the subject of the lawsuit.

Wondering if Harris will now push to outlaw cookies altogether, sans lead or otherwise:  For if you eat too many with lead, you fry your brain, and if you eat enough without lead, you fry your gut.