Story: Nicole Hamel

Governor Ron DeSantis, First Lady Casey DeSantis and Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo gave a shocking update on the findings of their investigation after launching the Make America Healthy Again Florida initiative in The Villages Monday.

The Florida Department of Health under the Healthy Florida First initiative led an investigation that tested baby formulas, several candy brands and other foods that parents often given to children. High levels of arsenic were found in more than half of the candy brands that were tested, 28 of 46 different brands to be exact.

Among those popular brands were Laffy Taffy, Nerds, Sweet Tarts, Hershey chocolate bars, Jolly Ranchers, Twizzlers, Kit Kats and Snicker Bars.

“I was really shocked by the levels of arsenic in common candies,” Dr. Ladapo says. “The levels of arsenic in common candies are much higher, two, three, four times higher than even foods we know have high levels of arsenic. The fact that arsenic is highly cariogenic, so it doesn’t take much of it to start causing problems in terms of increasing the risk of cancer.”

Studies show that exposure to toxins over time begin to pose severe health risks as the toxins begin to build up with in the body. These include neurological damage, cardiovascular disease, a variety of cancers, increase risk to type 2 diabetes and skin changes.

“There’s reasonable expectation that our food supply, especially foods marketed towards our children, should not contain toxic chemicals,” Gov. DeSantis says.

In a related investigation, state run labs have found that 16 of 24 infant formula contained heavy toxic metals-including mercury, cadmium, arsenic and lead that which exceeded the federal benchmarks, but infant formula is not directly regulated by the state. These findings are helping officials to prompt federal action and demand transparency. Casey DeSantis stated that systemic problems in sourcing or manufacturing were to blame.

Casey said that she walks up and down the aisles of the grocery store and has to have some level of confidence that her children are not being poisoned.

Gov. DeSantis and Dr. Ladapo expressed the importance of parents closely reading food labels and avoiding processed foods as well as limiting candy intake.

According to health officials’ ingredients such as food colorings and rice syrups tend to have higher levels of arsenic in it as rice levels absorb arsenic more in soil than other crops.

Dr. Ladapo says, “the state will continue testing food and will keep parents informed of what it finds.”

The state launched the website ExposingFoodToxins.com to help share results and aim to hold manufacturers accountable to ensure products being produced for children are safe.