Virginia becomes third state to require baby food be tested for harmful contaminants

RICHMOND, Va. (7News) — Virginia is now the third state in the nation to pass a law to protect babies from dangerous contaminants in their food, joining a growing coalition of concerned states.

Friday evening, Governor Glenn Youngkin signed HB 1844, the Baby Food Protection Act, which requires baby food makers to test for toxic heavy metals and display those test results via a QR code on the label.

This law is blueprinted off of Rudy's Law, passed in Maryland last year, inspired by 7News I-Team reporting. Rudy Callahan is a toddler, acutely poisoned by lead in his food.

Virginia lawmakers passed the baby food protection bill to safeguard developing infants from well-known neurotoxins like lead and arsenic that can irreversibly harm their brains and bodies.

With unanimous support in both chambers, it seemed obvious it would sail into law.

But instead of getting the governor's approval, Glenn Youngkin rejected it, looking to change the language that required baby food makers to test for toxins once a month, reducing it to only twice a year.

He later claimed the move was intended to make implementation easier.

“For anybody to really recognize that this is not an issue that has an essential part of our food safety system is really in a way putting your head in the sand,” said Jackie Bowen, Executive Director of the Clean Label Project.

“The onus is on states to protect all of their citizens, including the youngest ones,” said Bowen.

Which is exactly why Virgnia Delegate Michelle Lopes-Maldonado says she wrote the bill.

“The people at risk are the very people we are charged with protecting," said Maldonado.

“How surprised were you when the governor initially sent this bill back and asked lawmakers to reduce the protections for babies?” I asked.

“I was disappointed and I was surprised,” said Maldonado. “Because what that did, essentially, was gut the bill. It allowed for harmful things to continue, and I couldn't reconcile the intention of the bill and the harms prevented by the bill with those amendments. And so it was very clear that they were not in the best interests of parents or our children."

So Lopes-Maldonado and her colleagues took their chances.

Sending the bill back to Youngkin, unchanged.

We pressed the governor's office on the maneuver, and earlier this month exposed his attempt to reduce protections for babies.

“It was offensive, I think, across the board to so many who were trying to do the right thing,” said Maldonado.

Within hours of the 7News I-Team story airing, we were notified that the governor would sign the bill- as Lopes-Maldonado and every other Virginia state lawmaker intended.

“It’s quite the triumph for babies, parents, guardians. And because what it does is allow for us to be informed about what we put in the body of our babies,” said Maldonado. “And that is power. Knowledge is power.”