Lawsuit: Gerber selling baby food tainted with lead

Gerber is under fire for allegedly selling baby food tainted with lead.  

A lawsuit has been filed against the company in California.  

It alleges one serving of certain Gerber products expose a six, seven or eight-month-old baby to three times the amount of lead an adult can safely consume in one day. 

The lawsuit is being filed by environmental attorney Vineet Dubey, on behalf of a company that tests foods for contamination. 

"They've been asleep at the wheel for 10, 20, 30, 40 years, and think about how many kids have been poisoned in that time," said Dubey.  

The lawsuit involves Gerber’s sweet potato, carrot and pea baby food as well as the sweet potato, apple and cinnamon baby food. 

"The scariest part about this, is that Gerber sells this on its ‘Subscribe and Save’ model, where parents can get 10 units delivered to their house every month. And if a parent feeds their child 10 units of this in one month, basically for that entire month their child has been poisoned by lead," said Dubey.  

Congress is working on legislation to force the Food and Drug Administration to regulate toxic metals in baby foods.   

A congressional report released earlier this year found most popular brands of baby food contained dangerous levels of toxic metals.  

DOWNLOAD THE FOX 32 NEWS APP FOR BREAKING NEWS ALERTS

More than 80 lawsuits have been filed against the baby food companies named in the report, including Gerber.  

"In order to get every single baby food company involved, in order to safe guard American's children, not just California's children, Congress has got to take action on this and they need to do it sooner rather than later," said Dubey.  

The lawsuit was filed in California because the state does have standards for lead in food.  

Dubey says, the hope is, if Gerber changes its food in California, it will change nationwide.  

We reached out to Gerber for a comment on the lawsuit.

"At Gerber, the health and nutrition of babies is our top priority. While as a matter of company policy we don’t not comment on pending litigation,  we believe this lawsuit is without merit and we want to assure parents that our foods are safe for baby. Gerber is committed to reducing the levels of heavy metals in our baby foods to the lowest levels possible," a Gerber spokesperson said in a statement.

In the meantime, Dubey recommends parents stay away from baby food containing sweet potatoes to avoid potential lead exposure.