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By Anna Skinner
Associate News Editor
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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has directed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enhance testing and other efforts to ensure the safety of the infant formula supply.
Why It Matters
The announcement comes as Kennedy has touted the effectiveness of a healthy diet in mitigating disease in humans and a week after he ordered the FDA to explore revising the "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) rule, to "enhance the FDA's oversight of ingredients" included in American food, HHS said in a news release.
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What to Know
The HHS announcement on Tuesday about infant formula directs the FDA to take additional steps to "ensure the ongoing quality, safety, nutritional adequacy, and resilience of the domestic infant formula supply," according to a news release.
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The FDA will begin a nutritional review process of infant formula and conduct further testing for heavy metals and other contaminants, the news release said. Companies selling infant formula are also urged to create clearer labels regarding the ingredients.
An HHS spokesperson told Newsweek that the FDA is testing 340 samples of infant formulas, including powdered, concentrate and ready-to-drink varieties. The formulas are being examined for the presence of contaminants like arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury. As of Tuesday, 221 samples have been completed. The results do not indicate the presence of contaminants "that would trigger a public health concern."
Ingredient lists and additives in food have prompted concern among Americans in recent years, with more scrutinizing food content to have a better idea of what they're consuming.
Many infants and young children are fed formula. The 2022 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Breastfeeding Report Card found that "among infants born in 2019, most (83.2%) started out receiving some breast milk. At 1 month, 78.6% were receiving any breast milk. At 6 months, 55.8% of infants received any breast milk, and 24.9% received breast milk exclusively."
A study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics published in September 2023 examining data from the 2020 CDC report on breastfeeding found that "46.9% of 3-month-old infants and 25.6% of 6-month-old infants in the United States were fed human milk exclusively," meaning that many infants and young children relied, at least partially, on formula.
What People Are Saying
Kennedy said in the HHS news release: "The FDA will use all resources and authorities at its disposal to make sure infant formula products are safe and wholesome for the families and children who rely on them. Helping each family and child get off to the right start from birth is critical to our pursuit to Make America Healthy Again."
Acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner said in the news release: "The FDA is deeply committed to ensuring that moms and other caregivers of infants and young children and other individuals who rely on infant formula for their nutritional needs have confidence that these products are safe, consistently available, and contain the nutrients essential to promote health and wellbeing during critical stages of development and life. Whether breastfed, bottle fed or both, the rising generation must be nourished in a way that promotes health and longevity over the course of their lives."
What Happens Next
It is unclear when the FDA's testing will finish, and what affect it will have on the infant formula industry. The agency will publish the results once the testing is completed.
Since being appointed as secretary, Kennedy has rolled out myriad plans regarding the health of Americans and will likely continue to do so.
Update 3/18/2025, 5:32 p.m. Eastern time: This article was updated to include comment from the HHS.
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