Toxic Baby Food Lawsuit: Updates & Who Qualifies (2026)

The judge granted a motion to remand in Watkins v. Nurture, a case removed from Louisiana state court. The complaint also named a local, non-diverse party, the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans, and she rejected the claim that it was fraudulently joined. The case went back to the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, and all prior orders in it were vacated.

The summary judgment hearing, moved from July 9, was held on August 13, 2026. A day later, Pretrial Order No. 22 gave plaintiffs until September 3 to list cases claiming injuries other than autism or ADHD, or harm from infant formula. The parties were then to propose a conference date and file a list of cases where full or partial summary judgment would be entered.

Buyers suing Nurture, maker of Happy Baby Organics foods, sought preliminary approval of a nationwide class settlement. It offered a $3.4 million cash fund, none of which goes back to Nurture, plus up to $3.4 million in product vouchers, for people who bought the covered products from February 4, 2015 until preliminary approval. The judge had stayed the case in October 2025 so the parties could mediate. A September 29 letter asked the court to rule on the still-pending motion.

By agreement of the parties, Pretrial Order No. 21 kept all MDL cases on hold until further order, apart from motions about the court's jurisdiction. Cases transferred in later were paused automatically. The parties also had to flag cases where jurisdiction was missing or contested. On May 26, the court dismissed the cases that lacked diversity jurisdiction, without prejudice, under a stipulation.

Beech-Nut, Gerber, Hain Celestial, Nurture, Plum, Sprout Foods, Campbell's, Walmart, Amazon, and Whole Foods moved for summary judgment on all MDL claims in the cases they listed. The filing tracked an April 2 scheduling order, which set a July 9 hearing and denied, without prejudice, the plaintiffs' request to amend the master complaint.

Under a stipulation, the court dismissed ten defendants from the cases listed in the order's appendix. They were Danone S.A., Danone Nutricia Nederland B.V., Danone North America, Hero A.G., Sun-Maid Growers of California, and five Nestlé companies, among them Nestlé USA and Nestlé S.A. Gerber, Beech-Nut, Nurture, and Hain were not part of this dismissal.

Judge Corley excluded the causation opinions of plaintiffs' epidemiology and toxicology experts. She found the diet menus prepared by plaintiffs' counsel did not reflect realistic eating patterns, so exposure and blood lead estimates built on them were unreliable. She also noted that plaintiffs cited no study of whether baby food, or any food, can cause autism or ADHD. The motion was denied as to neurologist Dr. Kevin Shapiro. Plaintiffs had already dropped their mercury and cadmium theories.

In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court affirmed the Fifth Circuit in Hain Celestial v. Palmquist. Wrongly dismissing Whole Foods, a Texas defendant, did not cure the missing diversity jurisdiction at removal, so Hain's federal win stayed vacated. Hain's annual report says the case is now in Brazoria County district court, with trial set for March 29, 2027.

In appeal No. 25-821, the Second Circuit vacated the judgment that had ended the Beech-Nut buyers' class action in March 2025, the district docket shows, and sent the case back to the trial court. On remand, Beech-Nut renewed its bid to dismiss the buyers' second amended complaint on May 27, 2026. Briefing on that motion closed July 27, 2026.

A week of Rule 702 hearings opened on whether plaintiffs' general causation experts could testify. Defendants had asked on September 26, 2025 to bar those experts. Per the February 2026 ruling, the court took three days of testimony from epidemiologists Dr. Hannah Gardener, Dr. Howard Hu, and Dr. Beate Ritz and neurologist Dr. Kevin Shapiro, then heard closing arguments on December 11.

In Landon R. v. Hain Celestial, one of the coordinated California state court cases, the court granted defendants' motions to exclude the plaintiff's exposure expert and for summary judgment, Hain told the SEC. Judgment for the defendants followed on January 2, 2026, and the plaintiff appealed on March 2, 2026. The case had been set for trial on March 16, 2026.

Ruling on new motions aimed at the amended master complaint, the judge dismissed Danone North America and Sun-Maid Growers without leave to amend. She also granted the motions of two foreign Nestlé entities, Nestlé Enterprises and SPN. The Campbell's Company's motion was denied, so it stayed in the case. A public redacted copy of the order was filed on October 29.

The Supreme Court granted review of Hain's petition in Hain Celestial v. Palmquist, limited to the first question presented. Hain and Whole Foods had asked the justices to review the Fifth Circuit's May 28, 2024 decision. The case was argued on November 4, 2025.

Pretrial Order No. 16 made November 21, 2025 the last day to file cases directly in the MDL, an option first allowed by Pretrial Order No. 5. After that, no new direct filings were allowed without a further court order. The order also barred further changes to the amended master complaint unless the court gave permission.

Judge Corley's amended dismissal order denied the manufacturers' joint motion, so all seven warning, defect, and negligence claims moved forward. She dismissed the Swiss and French parents Nestlé S.A., Hero AG, and Danone S.A. for lack of personal jurisdiction. Campbell Soup and Sun-Maid won dismissal with leave to amend. References to aluminum were struck, and infant formula references were tentatively struck.

Pretrial Order No. 15 struck infant formula allegations from the master complaint, while leaving plaintiffs free to pursue formula claims in a proper venue or after remand. Plaintiffs could list injuries beyond autism and ADHD, but those would not be decided in the MDL. The order also reset deadlines: plaintiffs' expert reports by May 23, 2025, close of causation discovery on August 29, and a Rule 702 hearing on December 8, 2025.

Manhattan federal Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil largely denied Nurture's motion to dismiss a consolidated class action by buyers of its Happy Baby and Happy Tot Organics products. The buyers say Nurture failed to disclose heavy metals and other contaminants in the food. She found they had standing for every claim, that federal law did not preempt them, and that there was no reason to defer to the FDA. Only an unjust enrichment claim and two California statutory claims, under the False Advertising Law and Unfair Competition Law, were dismissed.

Judge David N. Hurd in upstate New York federal court dismissed the consolidated class action brought by Beech-Nut baby food buyers. He found they had not shown the economic injury needed to sue, since they did not point to a label claim about heavy metals they relied on or show they paid extra. The buyers claimed no physical injury. It was the second dismissal: the Second Circuit had vacated a January 19, 2023 ruling that deferred to the FDA.

The FDA issued final guidance on lead in processed foods made for babies and young children, an effort the FDA calls Closer to Zero. A 10 ppb level covers fruits, most vegetables, mixed foods, yogurts, custards, puddings, and meats with one ingredient. Dry infant cereals and root vegetables sold as a single ingredient were given 20 ppb. FDA said food above these levels may be regarded as adulterated under federal law.

Ruling in the Earth's Best consumer class action, Judge Nina R. Morrison of the Eastern District of New York let arsenic claims proceed to discovery. The buyers had standing and cited FDA's arsenic limit for infant rice cereal. Claims tied to lead, cadmium, mercury, and perchlorate were dismissed because the buyers alleged no safety threshold for those metals in baby food. Hain filed its answer on January 23, 2025.

Pretrial Order No. 9 set a February 27, 2025 hearing on motions to dismiss and said expert discovery would start in April 2025. It also scheduled a hearing of up to five days on general causation, the threshold question of whether the products can cause the claimed conditions, to begin December 8, 2025. Plaintiffs were told to start drafting a short-form complaint.

Under Pretrial Order No. 7, defendants had to turn over heavy metal test results for ingredients and finished products, plus product formulas, covering 2012 through 2021 for the 600 products listed with the master complaint. They also had to share test results for water used in manufacturing and name any third-party co-manufacturers of those products.

Plaintiffs filed their master complaint, the shared pleading for cases in the MDL, Hain reported to investors. The court's 2025 dismissal ruling lists its seven claims. Three theories (inadequate warnings, a flawed design, and a production flaw) are each pled under strict liability and again under negligence, plus a general negligence count.

California's Judicial Council granted coordination of the state-court baby food injury cases, and Judge Lawrence P. Riff of Los Angeles Superior Court was assigned as trial coordination judge. Hain later reported seven such cases against it, six in Los Angeles and one in Alameda County, with all but one stayed.

The Fifth Circuit vacated the federal judgment in Palmquist v. Hain Celestial. It held the parents had stated plausible claims against Whole Foods, so the trial court erred in dropping the Texas retailer and refusing to return the case to state court. The appeals court denied rehearing on September 9, 2024.

Judge Corley heard from applicants and the same day issued Pretrial Order No. 2. Aimee Wagstaff and Robert Brent Wisner became co-lead counsel for plaintiffs, and Monique Alarcon was named their liaison counsel. Sixteen more lawyers filled the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee. The order put the co-leads in charge of plaintiffs' positions, discovery, bellwether case selection, and settlement talks, though binding deals needed authorization. Brooke Killian Kim was appointed liaison counsel for the defense.

A federal panel that handles multidistrict cases centralized 10 federal cases from six districts into MDL No. 3101 in California's Northern District, with Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley presiding. Plaintiffs claim that exposure to arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury from the defendants' products caused brain injuries later diagnosed as autism or ADHD. All responding defendants had opposed centralization.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers granted summary judgment to Plum, PBC on every remaining claim in a proposed class action by buyers of Plum Organics baby food. The buyers said labels hid heavy metals and perchlorate. The court found they had not shown the food was unreasonably unsafe, and that no reasonable jury could find the trace contaminants stopped it from serving as nourishment.

A Second Circuit panel vacated the 2023 dismissal of a class action by Beech-Nut buyers over toxic metals in its baby food. The trial judge had set the claims aside to let the FDA act first, under the primary jurisdiction doctrine. The panel noted the agency had since dropped its announced timelines for setting lead, arsenic, and cadmium limits. It found that waiting could drag the case out for years, a cost that outweighed any benefit of deferring.

Judgment was entered for the defendants in NC v. Hain Celestial, a Los Angeles Superior Court case, after they won pretrial motions that included Hain's summary judgment motion. Its trial date had been October 4, 2023. Hain later reported that the time to appeal had passed.

Partway through the Palmquist jury trial in the Southern District of Texas, the judge granted Hain judgment as a matter of law after the parents rested, finding no evidence of general causation. The trial had opened on February 6, 2023. Hain reported that final judgment in its favor was entered on March 3, 2023.

The FDA released draft guidance proposing limits, called action levels, on lead in processed foods made for babies and young children under two, such as foods sold in jars, pouches, tubs, and boxes. The agency tied the draft to its Closer to Zero plan to cut exposure to lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury over time.