Girl Scouts Face Lawsuit Over Alleged Toxins in Cookies

A class-action lawsuit accuses Girl Scouts of the USA and its bakers of distributing cookies containing unsafe levels of heavy metals and pesticides.

The lawsuit, filed in New York federal court, claims Girl Scout cookies contain heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and mercury, as well as the pesticide glyphosate.
Independent testing cited in the lawsuit alleges 100% of cookie samples tested in 2024 contained at least four of five heavy metals, with some products exceeding acceptable limits.
The plaintiff, Amy Mayo, is seeking $5 million in damages and an injunction requiring disclosure of the alleged substances on packaging.
The Girl Scouts of the USA maintain that their cookies are safe, adhering to FDA and regulatory food safety standards, and have refuted the claims.
Experts and fact-checkers have noted that the study cited in the lawsuit was not peer-reviewed, had a small sample size, and used inappropriate safety benchmarks for food.