Arsenic, Lead and Mercury: What’s FDA Doing About Metals in America’s Food Supply?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for monitoring the levels of metals that are naturally present in our food supply via air, soil and water. Those metals include arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury and others. These metals, despite their natural origins, can be toxic and particularly dangerous to children and their neurological development.
For this reason, the agency established the Toxic Elements Working Group in 2017. The workgroup is spearheaded by Conrad Choiniere, Ph.D., director of the Office of Analytics and Outreach at FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. As the workgroup closes in on 6 months of work, the FDA shared a Q&A with Dr. Choiniere on why this work regarding metal levels in our food supply is so important.