The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) advises manufacturers and parents that new regulations take effect on Jan. 1, to provide accessible information regarding testing of heavy metals in baby food.
Passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 2025, the Baby Food Protection Act (House Bill 1844) requires manufacturers of baby food to test levels of four toxic elements and disclose the information on their website and via scannable QR codes on certain product labels.
The four toxic elements to be tested are lead, arsenic, mercury, and cadmium, which are heavy metals that may occur naturally in the environment or accumulate from human activities. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provide guidance and action levels regarding toxic elements and contaminants in food.
Under Virginia’s new law, the manufacture or sale of baby food products that exceed the FDA’s action levels are banned in the Commonwealth. Action levels have been set for lead in fruits, vegetables, mixtures including grain- and meat-based mixtures, yogurts, custards/puddings, single-ingredient meats, single-ingredient root vegetables, and dry infant cereals; and for arsenic in apple juice. Alongside the required testing for the four heavy metals, baby food products subject to an FDA action level will also require a scannable QR code or other type of machine-readable code on its label to be sold in Virginia.
All baby food products produced Jan. 1, 2026, or later, that are manufactured, sold, distributed, or offered for sale in the Commonwealth of Virginia are required to comply with the new law. Baby food products manufactured before Jan. 1, 2026, may still be sold after Jan. 1 in order to allow retailers to use existing inventory. “Baby Food Product” refers to foods marketed specifically for babies and children younger than two years of age, excluding infant formula.
Under the Baby Food Protection Act, manufacturers of baby food shall test a representative sample of each production aggregate of the final product for a toxic heavy metal. Testing shall be conducted at least monthly by a proficient laboratory. Test results must be publicly available on the manufacturer’s website for the duration of the product shelf life plus one month. When required, a QR code or other scannable code will also be placed on each product label, allowing consumers to access test results and FDA guidance related to the product.
The VDACS Food Safety Program will enforce the Baby Food Protection Act by requesting a manufacturer’s test results, reviewing baby food product labels, and responding to consumer complaints of suspected non-compliant products.
Many companies that manufacture, sell, distribute, or offer for sale baby food products in the Commonwealth of Virginia already meet the requirements of the Baby Food Protection Law testing and labeling, because the state of California enacted a comparable law effective January 2024, and Maryland had a comparable law take effect in January 2025. The VDACS Food Safety Program sent an email communication regarding the Baby Food Protection Act to retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, and home-based operations in its database on Dec. 16, 2025.
For questions regarding the Baby Food Protection Act, call the VDACS Food Safety Program at 804-786-3520 or email foodsafety@vdacs.virginia.gov.
