RFK Jr. Says Heavy Metals in Baby Formula Study Coming in April

The Food and Drug Administration is planning to release results from its “Operation Stork Speed” review of infant formula products in April, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday.

Kennedy, speaking at a health-themed rally in Harrisburg, Pa., said the studies set to publish in April will focus on the presence of contaminants including cadmium, mercury, and lead in baby formula.

“We’re going to be regulating baby formula companies so they’re giving you something that is as close to mother’s milk as we can get,” Kennedy said.

Officials at HHS and FDA launched “Operation Stork Speed” in March 2025 to improve the safety and supply of infant formula. A Bloomberg Law investigation published in January 2023 found that all but one of 33 baby food products tested by a laboratory contained at least two of three heavy metals: lead, arsenic, and cadmium.

Senators advanced a bill on Jan. 15 bolstering FDA’s oversight and enforcement of baby formula products following several infant illness outbreaks sparked by contaminated ingredients in recent years.

As part of the baby formula review, FDA is updating which nutrients manufacturers are required to include in their products. Kennedy said that’s because some of the existing 30 required nutrients were based on “archaic science.”

Kennedy’s remarks came as he launched a multi-state tour to tout his department’s recent updates to federal nutrition recommendations.

Kennedy acknowledged the new dietary guidelines “aren’t perfect” in response to a media question about why the guidelines recommended minimizing saturated fat consumption while increasing intake of meat-based proteins high in saturated fat—but celebrated the guidelines as a reversal of decades of corporate capture at the FDA by big food companies.

“They poisoned an America generation and we’re now feeling the effects,” Kennedy said.