Similac infant formula class action alleges products contain heavy metals

Similac infant formula class action overview:

• Who: Plaintiffs Tiffany Huggins and Lauren Nunez filed a class action lawsuit against Abbott Laboratories.
• Why: The plaintiffs claim Abbott failed to disclose that its Similac infant formula contains heavy metals.
• Where: The Similac infant formula class action lawsuit was filed in Illinois federal court.

A new class action lawsuit accuses Abbott Laboratories of failing to disclose that its Similac infant formula contains heavy metals, such as arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury.

Plaintiffs Tiffany Huggins and Lauren Nunez filed the class action complaint against Abbott Laboratories on March 7 in Illinois federal court, alleging violations of state and federal consumer laws.

According to the lawsuit, Abbott failed to disclose the presence of heavy metals in its Similac powdered infant formulas, which are sold throughout the United States.

The plaintiffs say that Abbott’s infant formulas contain detectable levels of arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury, all known to pose health risks to humans, especially infants.

The class action lawsuit claims that Abbott never disclosed that its products contained or had a material risk of containing heavy metals despite marketing its infant formulas as healthy and made with nutritious ingredients.

The plaintiffs allege that reasonable parents trust manufacturers like Abbott to sell infant formula that is healthy, nutritious and free from harmful toxins.

However, Abbott has been involved in multiple lawsuits concerning its Similac infant formula, including claims that it failed to adequately warn doctors about the increased risk of necrotizing enterocolitis in infants fed Similac formulas.

Abbott failed to disclose heavy metals in infant formula, lawsuit alleges

Huggins and Nunez cite testing from 2022 and 2023 that shows at least one heavy metal was present in all but two of the 121 samples tested, meaning only 1.65% had non-detectable levels of any heavy metals.

The plaintiffs claim that Abbott’s failure to disclose the presence of heavy metals in its infant formulas is deceptive, unfair, misleading and false, and that the company allowed consumers to pay a premium price for products that did not disclose material information about their true quality and value.

The pair is seeking to represent anyone who purchased the infant formulas for household use, and not for resale, from March 7, 2019, to present, and are suing for violations of consumer law and breach of warranty and are seeking certification of the class action, damages, fees, costs and a jury trial.

In 2024, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation agreed to consolidate class action lawsuits against a group of baby food manufacturers over claims that their products contain toxic heavy metals.

What do you think of the allegations in this Similac infant formula class action? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiffs are represented by Kenneth Wexler and Kara Elgersma of Wexler Boley & Elgersma LLP; Rebecca Peterson, Lori Feldman and Janine Pollack of George Feldman McDonald PLLC; Daniel Gustafson and Catherine Sung-Yun Smith of Gustafson Gluek PLLC; Simon Paris and Patrick Howard of Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendesky P.C.; Katrina Carroll and Kyle Shamberg of Carroll Shamberg LLC; and Jason Gustafson of Throndset Michenfelder LLC.

The Similac infant formula class action lawsuit is Huggins, et al. v. Abbott Laboratories, Case No. 1:25-cv-02460, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

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