Cheerios, the world’s best- selling grain, may have higher levels of a toxic chemical, according to two course- action lawsuits filed earlier this year.
According to the national lawsuits, several Cheerios varieties contain up to three times the proposed” safe” level of the chemical chlormequat salt, which has been shown to interfere with animal research and fetal growth.
One of the lawsuits filed in California claimed that” no reasonable customer would ever believe a food product, especially one that is heavily marketed to children and families,” may contain dangerous pesticides.
” Failure to disclose that the goods contain, or chance containing, a dangerous chemical that can affect human health is misleading”, said the other, filed in New York.
General Mills, based in Golden Valley, did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday night. Judges in both cases recently gave the business an extra month to respond to the lawsuits, which are demanding more than$ 5 million in damages.
The Environmental Protection Agency is considering allowing chlormequat on some imported particles in 2018 but does not now let it on domestically grown food crops. According to the EPA, the chemical “works to manage plant length by blocking the hormones that promote growth due to bloom” and prevents plants from bending over, preventing produce.
The nonprofit Environmental Working Group ( EWG ) found chlormequat in tests last year, and it has also increased in frequency in the urine of several dozen adults in the United States in recent years.
According to the advocacy group,” Animal experiments show chlormequat can damage the reproductive system and destroy fetal development, raising particular worries about how ingesting it might hurt children.”
Cheerios, often one of the first solid foods young children eat, have had a moment in the spotlight lately. In a Wall Street Journal interview about her property purchases in Duluth and the ensuing protest over her lack of transparency, Kathy Cargill made an error using the phrase “peed in his Cheerios.”
Who purged in your Cheerios, as it is more frequently said? to refer to someone’s grumpiness.
In response to the squabble,  , Duluthians donated hundreds of boxes of Cheerios and$ 50, 000 to local food pantries and nonprofits , in recent weeks.
Cargill, the company, is a major supplier for General Mills.
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