The Consumer Affairs Committee in the New Jersey Assembly has approved a measure that would ban the sale of candy that was intentionally infused with harmful chemicals in the manufacturing process.
Assemblyman Gary Schaer says some candy and their wrappers that were made in Central and South America have harmful levels of lead, mercury, and cadmium.
“What we hope to do with this bill is to make sure that manufactures overseas are not en masse shipping products to this country which are then being eaten by children creating unacceptable levels of lead poisoning at some point.”
Manufactures would be required to give written certification to the New Jersey Health Department that their candy was not tainted with dangerous chemicals.
A manufacturer that knowingly sells adulterated candy could be fined as much as a hundred thousand dollars.
That money would go into a fund to defray the costs of monitoring, inspection, and testing.