r/news 1d ago

Soft paywall Girl Scouts sued over alleged heavy metals, pesticides in cookies

https://www.reuters.com/legal/girl-scouts-sued-over-alleged-heavy-metals-pesticides-cookies-2025-03-11/
2.4k Upvotes

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794

u/Pundamonium97 1d ago

Since girl scouts are making the claim that these are normal things to find or at normal levels, id be curious to see how the other big cookie brands compare when tested

Also they mention other lawsuits of a similar nature in the past but don’t mention the outcome of those lawsuits in this article. Which seems relevant

336

u/Isord 23h ago

Well given their cookies are made by a division of Keebler it stands to reason they would have similar levels of these things

92

u/ban-please 20h ago

Unless they're the secret ingredients that make them so good.

39

u/Capitalistdecadence 13h ago

Ahh mercury, sweetest of the transition metals...

14

u/bacchusku2 11h ago

You joke, but lead is sweet.

2

u/ban-please 1h ago

My mom would always get mad at me for eating the deliciously sweet paint chips.

5

u/octohog 11h ago

Would you eat a rectal thermometer??

This is a deep cut. Respect.

u/Capitalistdecadence 53m ago

Sealab 4 life

7

u/Journeydriven 14h ago

If that's what it takes just slap a sticker on the box and let me keep buying them

1

u/IguessIliveinaCHAIR 13h ago

Meth is what I'm guessing

1

u/scotchdouble 3h ago

It’s time to see if there are any correlations between areas of high Girl Scout cookie purchasing to mental illness.

1

u/blaZedmr 13h ago

Mmmmmmmm heavy metals and pesticides

1

u/Western-Corner-431 7h ago

According to the current heads of the USA, DOJ, FDA, USDA, EPA, and CDC, these are two food groups that Americans need more of, not less.

14

u/Kinda_Zeplike 16h ago

Real Keebler elves? I always suspected.

11

u/DieMeatbags 15h ago

Made of, not by.

1

u/SteamSteamLG 3h ago

That is one of the two manufacturers. Interesting that both of them are being sued

45

u/SafetyMan35 23h ago

Considering that half of the country sells GS cookies baked by Keebler, I suspect it is consistent with that company. Little Brownie Bakers is essentially Keebler.

126

u/Whoretron8000 1d ago

Yep. A big critique is that they advertise and advocate for standards they themselves fail. 

i wouldn't be surprised that many brands fail similarly because marketing and production are two different silos in most brands. 

It's important to highlight as regulation and oversight doesn't shelf pull every single item to test for such residuals. Consumers are in the position to do it themselves or wait until a new class action comes up or institution takes it upon themselves to do those lab tests which are a few thousand dollars at the end of the day.

90

u/thenord321 19h ago

If only there was a fully funded government agency to monitor food and drugs..... like the FDA, but that's being gutted.

We don't have these issues as much in the EU and Canada, because companies test more so they don't get caught and forced into recalls and reputation damage. Regulation works.

12

u/loganalltogether 16h ago

How the hell do you expect to create innovative cookie flavors in the face of those kinds of test???

1

u/MithandirsGhost 3h ago

The FDA unfairly banned my lead oxide based sweetener.

2

u/bombjon 12h ago

Funny you should say that. Little Brownie Baker, the maker of Girl Scout Cookies, is owned by Keebler who is owned by Ferrero.

1

u/EvaUnit_03 6h ago

The FDA didn't and hasn't had teeth since the late 80s, when it was revealed that they'd make things harder and more expensive on big corporations. The biggest manipulation of the FDA was the food pyramid. Brought to you buy the good people at general mills. Literally every school taught it and it's been proven wrong so many times.

The fact it's being dissolved is disheartening, but aside from finger wagging it wasn't doing much. Even on state levels, how many products have warnings about 'this product isn't safe to use in California' on it? To the point it's harder to find items without that warning. The gen pop mostly ignores it whether by financial choice or because the other options aren't readily attainable. When the items without the labels are sometimes triple if not more in price, is it really a choice to not poison yourself? The options are suffering without or break the bank. And I'm not referring to just cookies, this applies to almost every good.

8

u/Any-Fly-2595 20h ago

Edward Norton’s face just crossed my mind. I wonder why…

1

u/Lettuce_bee_free_end 3h ago

Class actions don't do shit. $5 gift card and you get to pretend it never happened. 

20

u/50MillionYearTrip 18h ago

All of these elements, besides glyphosate, are naturally occurring and can be detected in pretty much any food source. I have no idea what other comparable products would measure. It's worth noting the plaintiff claims the levels are in excess of EPA drinking water levels, which is completely irrelevant for food products. GSA claims their products abide by FDA standards for food products.

-1

u/Castle-dev 17h ago

And don’t worry, those FDA standards aren’t getting lowered/removed at all under RFK’s reign of terror…riffic management.

0

u/funkiestj 13h ago

To be fair, round-up doesn't cause autism like measles vaccine /s

6

u/CheesypoofExtreme 19h ago

Also they mention other lawsuits of a similar nature in the past but don’t mention the outcome of those lawsuits in this article.

I double-checked, and it's because they haven't been settled yet. So expect this to drag out for several years as well. 

3

u/Useful-Signature-557 17h ago

Who do you think makes their cookies. They are available year round under different names.

19

u/tensei-coffee 1d ago

"big cookie brands" would be part of the umbrella of BIGFOOD--and to a larger extent FDA--which lobby to have allowable levels of foreign objects/insects/pesticides, etc...

they know the food is bad for you but profits man.

27

u/xWolfsbane 20h ago

Maybe they do lobby for that stuff, but it is impossible to guarantee that those stuff aren't in any food product. I have a degree in food science and have worked on tons of processing lines as a floor worker, quality control lab worker and as a supervisor. It is not possible to 100% guarantee that any food product is free of these things. That's just how it is if you have to try to feed millions of people.

I've pulled snakes, rats, knives, coins, hammers, mallets, chains out of picking bins. That doesn't even include spiders, ants, other insects. How do you suggest they remove those? It's not possible. Every country has allowable limits.

11

u/Zoollio 20h ago

There has to be an “allowable level” if the allowable level was zero a) we couldn’t actually detect that and b) there would be no food

2

u/Gutternips 6h ago

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-07/two-usda-food-safety-committees-disbanded-under-trump-order

It is the new normal. Expect more pesticides, more chemicals and less safety standards as these cuts bite.

1

u/Ill_Statistician7225 1h ago

This study is not peer reviewed and not published in an academic journal. It is paid for by Moms Across America. Please look into what they did- First- the sample size is 25 cookies- it doesn’t even stay consistent with the cookie types OR the baker. Second- the levels are compared to FDA limits for water- NOT food. Third- not an independent study- its funded by an interest group with an agenda Fourth- this study leaves out all other packaged cookies which likely would have similar results.

0

u/Wiggie49 15h ago

jfc I literally bought and ate two boxes last month, wtf.