“People have the right to not be poisoned. Sounds really common sense, but unfortunately, there are a lot of companies in the food industry that do not agree,” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey says.
That’s why the Florida Department of Health has taken matters into its own hands by launching the Healthy Florida First initiative. Spearheaded by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, first lady Casey DeSantis, and Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, this program independently tests common food products for contaminants — such as heavy metals, pesticides like glyphosate, and other toxins — to promote transparency, accountability, clean food systems, and informed choices for families.
The results of Florida’s testing have revealed contaminants in many everyday foods like candy, breads, and even baby formulas.
On this episode of “Relatable,” Allie sits down with Casey DeSantis to discuss some of the most shocking findings.
Baby formula
“When we got the [baby formula] results back, we were very startled and obviously disquieted by the fact that there was 17 out of 24 that came back with problematic levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury,” DeSantis says, noting that after 2025 Consumer Reports data revealed contamination in several name brand baby formulas, many companies’ products “still [have] problematic contaminants.”
Some of those brands include top-sellers, like Enfamil and Similac — both of which had multiple varieties test positive for contaminants such as arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and lead.
“[Heavy metals] don’t just leave the body easily, right? … Unfortunately, what our surgeon general in Florida has said that you have a definite increased risk of cancer over the course of your lifetime if you’re consuming this early in life,” DeSantis tells Allie.
“It is not fair to any mother to go into a store, to have to sit there and wonder which option is better than another when all of it should be safe.”
Bread
Several top brands of bread were found to contain a chemical called glyphosate, which is one of the most commonly used weed killers worldwide.
“It’s Roundup. … It kills plants, and so there’s no reason why any of that should be in any product that we’re consuming,” DeSantis says.
Florida Surgeon General Dr. Ladapo, she says, has warned that consuming glyphosate can cause problems “at the cellular level with your microbiome.”
But even more disturbing are the label warnings on Roundup, she says, which caution users to avoid all skin contact skin and inhalation.
“There’s all of these problematic things with being in close proximity to glyphosate. [It’s] probably safe to assume that it’s not good in the food supply in bread,” DeSantis says.
And yet, testing from the Healthy Florida First initiative detected glyphosate in 6 out of 8 popular brands, including Nature’s Own, Dave’s Killer Bread, Wonder Bread, and Sara Lee.
Candy
Most people know that candy isn’t the healthiest food choice, but many have no clue that in addition to the high sugar levels, many top candies contain arsenic — a known human carcinogen.
Florida’s Department of Health tested 46 top candy products and found that 28 (60%) had detectable levels of arsenic in them. Some of those include Laffy Taffy, Nerds, SweeTarts, Jolly Ranchers, Twizzlers, Kit Kat, Snickers, Skittles, and Sour Patch Kids, among several others.
DeSantis gives a real-life example of how drastically this can impact a child.
“Our analysis found that if you eat more than 96 Nerds over the course of a year, for a child, you are exceeding the allowable threshold of arsenic for a child. … It’s realistic to assume that children are eating more than 96 individual Nerds. When you look at a box that you get in a movie theater, there’s 8,000 Nerds in it,” she says.
Crunching the numbers: Eating a full box of Nerds (8,000 pieces) would expose a child to more than 83 times the yearly safe limit of arsenic set by Florida’s Department of Health — just from that one movie-theater treat.
The occasional piece of candy isn’t concerning, DeSantis says. “It’s the consumption in aggregate that is very problematic.”
“That has to be taken into account, and that has to be disclosed to parents so that they can make better decisions,” she adds.
To hear more, watch the full episode above.
Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?
To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Relatable, Casey desantis, Blazetv, Blaze media, Florida department of health, Joseph ladapo, Healthy florida first, Glyphosate, Heavy metals, Baby formula, Allie beth stuckey, Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Relatable podcast