Consumer Groups Urge FDA to Regulate Heavy Metals in Fruit Juice

Consumer advocacy organizations have written to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to report the results of tests conducted on apple juice, showing arsenic levels above federal tolerance levels for drinking water.

The organizations, Food & Water Watch and the Empire State Consumer
Project, urge FDA to “establish tolerance levels for arsenic in food” and “to
focus its import surveillance resources on imported juice concentrate as
a product of concern and increase its testing of those imported products.”
One apple juice sample apparently contained 55 parts per billion (ppb) of
arsenic; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking water tolerance
level for arsenic is 10 ppb. According to the groups’ letter to FDA, the
agency has admitted that it has “established a ‘level of concern’ when arsenic
levels exceed 23 parts per billion, but has no actionable levels for regulatory
purposes.” See Food & Water Watch News Release, July 21, 2011.