The ASBPE Educational Foundation congratulates 2024 Journalism That Matters Award winner Bloomberg Law for alerting Congress to FDA inaction on unsafe baby food.

Thanks to the publication’s article, “Baby Foods With Toxic Metals Stay on US Market While FDA Dithers,” congressional leaders in the House and Senate joined forces to demand Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf stop slow-walking an initiative the agency launched in 2021 to remove heavy metals from baby food.

“We write to express our continued concerns regarding the recent reports of high levels of toxic heavy metals in baby foods, as published in Bloomberg Law, that found many store-bought baby food products to contain unacceptable levels of toxic heavy metals such as arsenic, lead and cadmium,” the letter said.

Sens. Amy Klobachar (Minn.) and Tammy Duckwoerth (Ill.) along with Reps. Tony Cardenas (Calif.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill.) sent the letter in early May 2024. 

The Foundation launched the Journalism That Matters Award in 2006 to recognize work by business-to-business publications that leads to a concrete action in government or the industry or profession that the publication covers. 

The award is only occasionally presented because it poses a high bar to win. 

“We’re pleased to recognize the Bloomberg Law team, led by Editor Gary Harki, for producing work that led to forceful action by members of Congress to hold the FDA accountable for dropping the ball on unsafe baby food,” Robert Freedman, president of the ASBPE Educational Foundation, said. “This is only the fifth time we’ve recognized a publication with the award since 2006. There’s no shortage of excellent B2B journalism being done each year, but showing a piece has moved the needle on an issue is hard to do. Bloomberg Law cleared that bar this year with its fine work.”

“This was a team effort and took reporters from across the newsroom to pull it off,” said Gary Harki of Bloomberg Law. “This felt like an important story that needed to be written, and I’m proud to work for a place that gives us the time and resources to make stories like this happen.”