Bad candy: 80% of sweets tested have elevated levels of arsenic, DeSantises say

https://floridaphoenix.com/ ^ | January 26, 2026 | Christine Sexton

[bitt]

Administration cites testing conducted by Florida Department of Health.

Candy for Valentine’s Day?

Maybe not.

The administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday that it had tested 46 types of candy and that more than 60% of them (28) contained elevated arsenic levels that, consumed over time, could put children at an increased risk of cancer.

This is the second announcement this month the DeSantis administration has made about its testing efforts and the results being posted on the Healthy Florida First website. The governor and First Lady Casey DeSantis announced Florida had tested 24 infant formulas and found that 16 contained heavy metals or chemicals.

Those efforts followed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s, directive to the federal Food and Drug Administration to look at ingredients used in infant formula. Before he joined the administration of President Donald Trump, Kennedy promised to look at whether there were toxic metals in infant formula.

Although the DeSantis administration purports that 28 candies showed high levels of arsenic, the first lady stressed that not all test results were bad. For instance, she said none of the candy the state tested showed elevated levels of lead, mercury, cadmium, or “other problematic carcinogens.”

Some of the candies with arsenic included: (The full list from the state listed at the bottom of this story)

SweeTarts Original

Trolli Sour Brite Crawlers

Jolly Rancher Hard Candy Sour Apple and Strawberry Twizzlers

Sour Patch Kids

Tootsie Roll and Tootsie Fruit Chew

[bitt]

p

[Sacajaweau]

Means nothing if you don’t name those which contain arsenic.

[PGalt]

Thanks for posting. HOORAY Governor DeSantis & RFK Jr. Health BUMP!

[MV=PY]

There’s a full list at the bottom of the article.

[Carry_Okie]

This is the second announcement this month the DeSantis administration has made about its testing efforts and the results being posted on the Healthy Florida First website. The governor and First Lady Casey DeSantis announced Florida had tested 24 infant formulas and found that 16 contained heavy metals or chemicals.

This is obscene, if only because the manufacturer should have been sample testing both their products and their incoming materials routinely. Where the hell was the FDA?

[Sacajaweau]

Yeh...I posted after reading only bits and pieces of the article...

[GreatRoad]

I’m partial to Godiva which is not on the list, though they may not have tested it.

[Sacajaweau]

I buy all my chocolate from Aldi....dark chocolate...melt with additional butter....add toasted pecans...cool....and indulge. Life is too short...

[Pollard]

DeSantises say

What are DeSantises?

[sopo]

good ,raises tolerance if someone tries to poison you.

[rlmorel]

There is an interactive list at the article.
That said, before I get all worked up about this, I would suspect that arsenic levels are set with an unusually low threshold because the stinking EPA and FDA are involved. Plus, there is some endeavor called "Closer to Zero: Reducing Childhood Exposure to Contaminants from Foods"

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Drinking Water
EPA has set 10 ppb as the allowable level for arsenic in drinking water (maximum contaminant level). (EPA 2006). The World Health Organization recommends a provisional drinking water guideline of 10 ppb.

Food
Arsenic is used in some veterinary drugs, including those used to treat animals used for commercial food products.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has established tolerance levels for arsenic in byproducts of animals treated with veterinary drugs. These permissible levels range from 0.5 ppm in eggs and uncooked edible tissues of chickens and turkeys to 2 ppm in certain uncooked edible byproducts of swine. Shellfish (especially bivalve mollusks and crustaceans) concentrate arsenic in seawater, but it exists in the organic forms, which have not been shown to produce adverse effects in humans consuming these seafoods. This type of organic arsenic is also rapidly excreted.

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Both the EPA and FDA are examples of do-good agencies which set limits based on BS (We could say "Bad Science" instead of the other word) which are often unrealistic and prohibitively expensive to achieve. Not real world, and based on flawed assumptions. Not saying this is the case here, but when the EPA is involved, anything is possible.

The FDA/EPA sets the concentration limits at PPM (parts per million) in some sample size tested and the article is discussing it in PPB (parts per billion) over...the course of a year in amount of candy ingested. Which makes it more difficult to do an apples-to-apples comparison to standards of any kind.

[BipolarBob]

Mideaval thinking. Unfortunately no. It accumulates and poisons you anyway.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

It’s a plural to denote an egotistical girl-boss telling her soi-partner he’s governor of Florida.

[MotorCityBuck]

Fan-Bois of The DeSantis. LOL!

[PGR88]

It does not say what form of arsenic

If a politician wants to make a big stink about “food politics” they talk about arsenic

small amounts of arsenic are common in the environment, particularly seafood. Organic arsenic is bonded with carbon and is found nearly everywhere. It’s passed through the human body and is very low toxicity.

pure metallic arsenic is mostly not found in the natural world. Arsenic is toxic when it is made into salts or arsenic trioxide.

[newfreep]

I'm partial to Lady Godiva, immortalized in song by Peter & Gordon.

Her long blonde hair
Hangin' down around her knees
All the cats who dig striptease
Prayin' for a little breeze
Her long blonde hair
Falling down across her arms
Hiding all the lady's charms

Jane Asher, early girlfriend of a young Paul McCartney, was Peter Asher's sister.

[Resolute Conservative]

Never eat candy, at all, so good luck to you guys.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Well, I guess ill have to toss that new box of sweet tarts sitting on top of my nightstand. 😥

[DannyTN]

"What are DeSantises?"

Governor DeSantis and all of his clones.