The Girl Scouts Are Being Sued for ‘Heavy Metals’ in Their Cookies—but Are They Dangerous?

Girl Scout cookies are an American classic, so it’s understandable to be freaked out after hearing that the organization is being sued over allegations that its iconic cookies are contaminated with heavy metals.

The class action lawsuit was filed by a New York woman, Amy Mayo, on Monday. In the suit, Mayo requests $5 million in damages from Girls Scouts and their cookie-makers, Ferrero and ABC Bakers, on allegations that the companies make and distribute “products which are contaminated with dangerous heavy metals, including aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury…and pesticides, including glyphosate.”

The lawsuit cites testing done in 2024 that determined “100%” of Girl Scout cookies contain “at least four out of five heavy metals,” along with other “extremely problematic” compounds. 

The Girl Scouts has spoken out about the research in the past. In February, the organization shared an “important update” in response to the study, stressing that Girl Scout cookies are “safe to consume.”

It can be hard to know what to think with all of this, especially if you’re a long-time Girl Scout cookie fan. Here’s a breakdown of the research behind this firestorm, plus what a toxicologist and food safety expert want you to keep in mind. 

What does the research *actually* say?

The lawsuit is based on results of a study conducted and released by consumer watchdog groups: GMOScience and Moms Across America. For the study, the researchers tested 25 Girl Scout cookies, including 11 types. Those included: 

• Adventurefuls
• Caramel deLites (aka Samoas)
• Peanut Butter Sandwich (Do-si-dos)
• Girl Scout S’mores
• Lemonades
• Lemon-Ups
• Peanut Butter Patties (Tagalongs)
• Thin Mints
• Toast-Yay!
• Toffee-tastic 
• Trefoils

The researchers discovered that all of the cookies had levels of heavy metals—aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury—and that some were at levels that are higher than established safe limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The researchers also detected levels of glyphosate, a form of pesticide, in the cookies.

How do heavy metals end up in Girl Scout cookies?

It’s important to get this out of the way upfront: The Girl Scouts didn’t add these compounds to their cookies. Instead, they likely got in a few different ways. 

“Heavy metals often enter the food supply through contaminated soil, water, or processing equipment, particularly in imported ingredients,” explains Darin Detwiler, author of the book Food Safety: Past, Present, and Predictions and a professor at Northeastern University. Meaning, heavy metals could seep into the cookies anywhere from the ground where ingredients were grown in, to when the cookies were made. 

But Detwiler says that “context matters” with this. “Many foods contain trace amounts of heavy metals due to natural environmental exposure,” he points out. 

Are heavy metals in a lot of foods?

Unfortunately, this is “very common” in food, according to Jamie Alan, PhD, an associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Michigan State University. “These compounds are found everywhere, including in our soil,” she says. 

Over the past few years, consumer watchdog groups have sounded the alarm on heavy metal contamination in certain spices (particularly cinnamon), protein powders, baby foods, and rice-based products. But cookies may be particularly vulnerable to housing heavy metals due to their ingredients. “Cocoa, rice, and wheat—all common in cookies—are known to accumulate heavy metals from soil,” Detwiler says. 

How worried about this should you be?

A lot depends on how many cookies you eat. “Eating a few cookies is unlikely to cause harm, but frequent, long-term exposure to contaminated foods raises concerns,” Detwiler says. 

Alan also notes that while it’s important to investigate the compounds in cookies, the researchers didn’t share how they actually got their findings. “It would be easier to figure out how concerning this would be if they published their methods,” she says. “However, even the cookies with the highest reported levels, unless you are consuming massive amounts of these cookies on a regular basis, there is no major concern.”

Detwiler stresses that the Girl Scouts aren’t really to blame for this. Instead, he says it’s likely that the companies that actually make the cookies may have relied on less expensive suppliers and ingredient sources that may have introduced the heavy metals into the cookies. 

“The Girl Scouts deserve better,” Detwiler says. “They are not the villains in this story—they are, in many ways, victims of a broken system where brands, businesses, and consumers alike pay the price for misplaced trust.”