Prenatal multivitamins.

Senator Weber Pierson anchors a California effort to set a new standard for prenatal vitamins by tying lot-by-lot heavy metal testing to a public disclosure regime, reflecting a direct move toward greater product-specific transparency in the health–safety regime. The bill would add a new chapter to the Health and Safety Code that defines the scope of prenatal multivitamins, distinguishes between bulk and packaged forms, and establishes terms such as brand owner, manufacturer, lot, and proficient laboratory. Beginning January 1, 2027, manufacturers of both bulk and packaged prenatal multivitamins sold in the state would be required to test a representative sample from each lot for heavy metals—arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury—at a proficient laboratory. Both a manufacturer and the brand owner would be obligated to provide test results to an authorized department representative upon request, and brand owners would begin publicly disclosing per-lot heavy metal data and supplement facts on their websites.

Key mechanisms compel laboratories to meet defined standards and ensure data accessibility. Proficient laboratories must be ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accredited and employ an analytical method at least as sensitive and specific as the FDA’s inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry approach described in the agency’s elemental analysis guidance, with demonstrated proficiency to 10 micrograms per kilogram (μg/kg) via independent testing and a z-score of ±2 or less. Both manufacturers and brand owners must make test results available to the department, and if a brand owner does not manufacture the product, they may rely on the manufacturer’s results. Public disclosures require brand owners to post, on a single web page for the product’s shelf life plus one month, the heavy metal levels for each lot and the supplement facts panel, along with a health-context statement about heavy metals in prenatal vitamins. The information must be linkable to specific products through identifying data, and a hyperlink to FDA heavy metals resources must accompany the disclosure. By 2030, packaging and online product detail pages must include explicit notices directing consumers to the posted results, and the sale of noncompliant prenatal vitamins would be prohibited.

Enforcement and implementation are framed around a new crime under the Health and Safety Code, with the California Department of Public Health empowered to oversee compliance and data requests, and a standard no-local-reimbursement clause for costs. The framework operates alongside existing consumer safety laws, creating a parallel, product-specific regime rather than amending the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law. A phased timeline directs testing and initial disclosures to begin in 2027, with packaging and online notice requirements and the sale prohibition phased in by 2030. The policy context aligns with an established approach used for certain baby foods, extending a data-driven transparency model to prenatal vitamins to inform consumers and influence manufacturer and brand-owner practices through required, per-lot information access.