For the past year, we have been watching to see how the Trump Administration approached protecting families from lead exposure as part of its Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) effort. Would it continue the impressive progress we saw in 2024 or roll those successes back as part of its deregulatory and budget-cutting efforts? Nine months in, we examine the signals and actions in a series of blogs.
Under the Biden Administration, FDA took important actions to reduce lead in food in three areas as part of its Closer to Zero program. Note that the first two areas were in response to state and local health officials investigating elevated blood lead levels.
- Cinnamon and Applesauce Puree: In late 2023, FDA issued a public health alert about extraordinarily high levels of lead in an applesauce puree imported from Ecuador, which was an action in response to reports from North Carolina,. The culprit was cinnamon contaminated with lead chromium at levels so high it appeared to be intentionally added; a case of economic adulteration. In July 2024, CDC published a summary of the investigation. Given the risks of wider contamination and cinnamon’s popularity in food frequently consumed by babies and young children, FDA expanded its focus to the other sources of the spice, sending a letter to companies that make, process, or distribute cinnamon, and issuing alerts in March, July, and November whenever it found lead greater than 2,000 parts per billion (ppb). Many of the samples were provided by states and bought from discount retail outlets.
- Cookware: Responding to news from Seattle and King County authorities about highly contaminated metal cookware made of aluminum and brass, FDA issued a letter in June 2023 describing how to test for lead. The agency followed up in December 2024 alerting retailers and distributors to be vigilant not to sell cookware that can leach lead into food.
- Baby Food: Early in 2024, FDA committed to finalizing action levels for lead in processed food intended for babies and young toddlers and proposing action levels for cadmium and inorganic arsenic in these products. In preparation, agency scientists published a September study that found excessive cadmium and lead in young children’s diets. On January 6, 2025, FDA took overdue action on lead, finalizing without changes its January 2023 proposal. It took no action on the other toxic elements. Unleaded Kids criticized the agency’s modest proposal, especially for exempting snacks and beverages.
FDA took no action on a December 2020 citizen petition submitted by 13 groups that asked the agency to systemically address lead in food by:
- Lowering the maximum lead allowed in bottled water from 5 to 1 ppb;
- Explicitly prohibiting lead as an additive to food contact articles; and
- Updating its existing guidance limiting lead in children’s candy, juice, dried fruits, spices, and other ingredients.
Let’s look at how FDA under the Trump Administration is handling those three issues.
Continues to Investigate and Recall Lead in Cinnamon Over 2,000 ppb
FDA has continued to investigate lead contamination in cinnamon, issuing public health alerts on September 12, October 8, October 10, and October 30 for products with levels more than 2,000 ppb. It was a high enough priority that agency staff acted during the shutdown.
Twenty-one brands are now covered by alerts with four showing up in both 2024 and 2025. It mentions 7 states as providing samples: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Maryland, Missouri, New York, and Virginia.
Despite the growing extent of the problem, FDA has not provided a detailed explanation for why it appears to be exclusively focused on cinnamon or why it considers levels below 2,000 ppb are safe. The agency seems content to continue taking a “whack-a-mole” approach instead of a systemic solution or taking enforcement action against repeat violators.
Continues to Issue Warnings about Imported Cookware
In August and October, FDA issued warnings about 10 cookware products made from aluminum, brass or aluminum alloys (known as Hindalium/Hindolium or Indalium/Indolium) that leach significant amounts of lead into food in tests designed to mimic their use in contact with food. It also says that collection and sampling of these products is ongoing.
As with spices, FDA appears content to continue taking a “whack-a-mole” approach instead of a systemic solution or taking enforcement action against repeat violators.
No Action on Toxic Elements in Baby Food—Yet
FDA has taken no action on a February petition from 13 groups, including Unleaded Kids, asking Commissioner Martin Makary to reconsider the lead in baby food action levels. Those action levels are expected to reduce babies’ dietary exposure to lead by less than a paltry 3.6% while creating loopholes for snacks and beverages that will frustrate parents and implicitly give permission for all but the worst-performing companies to maintain the status quo.
As part of its Closer to Zero program, FDA committed to issue the following action levels by the end of 2025:
- Lead in juices (proposed in April 2022);
- Inorganic arsenic in baby food; and
- Cadmium in baby food.
Conclusion
The MAHA movement is focused on food chemicals, including additives, pesticides, and generally recognized as safe (GRAS) substances. However, the White House’s Make our Children Healthy Again report and strategy makes no mention of efforts or plans to reduce toxic element and heavy metal contamination in food.
FDA under the Trump Administration seems content to continuing the modest, but important, efforts undertaken by the agency under the Biden Administration to protect families from lead. But there appears to be no plans for systemic fixes or addressing the December 2020 petition.
A key test will be in December when FDA issues the action levels for juices and baby food. In the absence of strong leadership by FDA, we expect states to fill the gap and expand their efforts to protect families from toxic elements and heavy metal contamination. We saw that in 2025 with California, Illinois, and Virginia enacting legislation requiring companies to test each lot of priority products for arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury and to make those results publicly available.