A trial began on Monday in a lawsuit filed by an environmental group against America's largest baby food makers aimed at forcing the companies to put warning labels on products containing lead.

The Environmental Law Foundation (ELF) accused Del Monte Foods, Beech-Nut Nutrition and other baby food makers of selling products containing lead at levels that require warning labels under California Proposition 65.

The case, filed in 2011, is expected to last for several weeks.

Lawyers representing the food companies said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had tested the products mentioned in the lawsuit and found the levels were below the standards that require warning.

Both sides agree that baby food containing carrots, peaches, pears and sweet potatoes have some lead. The suit also listed grape juice and fruit cocktail.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association, a trade group, said in a statement that "many minerals, including lead, are found naturally in soil and water throughout the world. As a result, virtually all foods grown in nature, including fruit -- whether fresh or packaged -- contain trace levels of such naturally occurring minerals."

ELF President Jim Wheaton told the press that "our hope is that rather than put the labels on, these companies will get off their duffs and do what all their competitors are doing and just get the lead out."

"We banned lead in paint, we banned it in gasoline. What is it doing in baby food," he said.

According to the ELF, lead was one of the very first chemicals listed by the state of California in 1987 as a "chemical known to the state" to cause cancer, developmental and reproductive toxicity.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 500,000 U.S. children aged 1 to 5 suffer unsafe levels of lead in their blood.

Experts said exposure to lead can affect virtually every system in the body and cause intellectual and behavioral deficits. Endi

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