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- Experts and fact-checkers have noted that the study cited in the lawsuit was not peer-reviewed, had a small sample size, and used inappropriate safety benchmarks for food.