Arsenic Levels High in Apple Juice, St. Petersburg Times Finds

Great Value Apple Juice had higher levels of arsenic than the FDA recommends.

How safe is your child’s apple juice? A new investigation by the St. Petersburg Times has found arsenic in apple juice at levels exceeding federal standards.

Five of the 18 boxes of apple juice tested had levels above 23 parts per billion, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “level of concern.”

Three samples were at 35, 34, and 30 parts per billion.

Long-term exposure to arsenic can cause cancer. Research also shows links to diabetes and organ damage and hormone system disruption at lower levels.

Children are especially vulnerable.

Reporter Tom Marshall said he was inspired to do the story while he was buying juice for his seven-year-old child, and saw the juice boxes were labeled “Product of China.”

He said more than 60 percent of apple juice from concentrate comes from China, and arsenic is used in pesticides there and in other countries, including the U.S.

The highest levels were found in samples taken from Motts and Walmart’s Great Value brands, he said, with somewhat-lower levels in Apple and Eve and Treetop, and yet-lower levels in Minute Maid, Nestles.

They found one producer with almost no arsenic – M&B Products, run by Dale McClellan of Tampa.

He also gets concentrate from China, but he has a contract requiring low levels of arsenic.

The FDA was found lower average numbers in its testing, Marshall said, of around 9 parts per billion.

But a University of Arizona study of apple and grape juice ranged higher, between 10 and 40 parts per billion.

Marshall said the levels seem to vary from brand to brand and even lot to lot.

All the companies say they are testing their juice, but Marshall says it’s not clear how much they are testing.

For example, Nestle told Marshall that it does test, but refuses to disclose what level it requires in its juice, calling it proprietary information.

Marshall says the newspaper hopes to spur a discussion about what level of arsenic is safe in juice boxes. He said parents he spoke with were concerned, but not panicked.

One mother likened it to exposure to the sun: it’s not about banning exposure, but taking reasonable precautions.