Report: High lead content in cinnamon and spice mixes from 12 brands

CNN
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High levels of lead have been found in 12 brands of cinnamon powder and multi-spice powders, according to tests released Thursday by Consumer Reports, a nonprofit organization that helps consumers evaluate goods and services.

According to the report, the cinnamon powder sold by Paras contained the highest lead content at 3.52 ppm.

The next highest level was found in EGN cinnamon powder (2.91 ppm), followed by Mimi's Products ground cinnamon (2.03 ppm), ShopRite Bowl & Basket ground cinnamon (1.82 ppm), Rani Brand ground cinnamon (1.39 ppm), Zara Foods cinnamon powder (1.27 ppm), Three Rivers cinnamon stick powder (1.26 ppm), Yu Yee Brand five-spice powder (1.25 ppm), BaiLiFeng five-spice powder (1.15 ppm), Spicy King five-spice powder (1.05 ppm), Badia cinnamon powder (1.03 ppm), and Deep cinnamon powder (1.02 ppm).

Paras and EGN told Consumer Reports that they would stop sales and instruct stores to remove the affected cinnamon products from their shelves.

CNN has contacted all 12 brands for comment.

Mimi's Products told CNN that the company relies on analytical reports from its suppliers that show “no lead levels above 1 ppm have been found in our ground cinnamon,” spokeswoman Nuria Lambert said.

Karen O'Shea, director of corporate communications at Wakefern Food Corp., which owns ShopRite Bowl & Basket, told CNN via email: “The quality of our products is of utmost importance and our cinnamon meets all safety and quality standards.”

Alina Lasta, director of regulatory affairs at Badia Spices, told CNN via email that the company's ground cinnamon products comply with all federal and international laws.

“Traces of lead are present in almost every food grown around the world,” Guitar said in an email. “The FDA has not issued formal regulations on lead content in spices, but to date has never issued a consumer warning or recall for spice products containing lead at levels less than 2 ppm.”

By press time, CNN had not received a response from other manufacturers or the American Spice Trade Association, which represents the U.S. spice industry on the global market.

The Codex Alimentarius, an international council established by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “is considering establishing a maximum level of 2.5 ppm for lead in spice barks, including cinnamon, in 2024,” the FDA said.

However, lead levels above 1 ppm trigger a recall in New York, the only state that regulates heavy metals in spice products, Consumer Reports reported, which alerted New York state authorities. CNN also reached out to the New York State Department of Health to see if it would take action based on the report, but did not receive a response before publication.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, there is no concentration of lead that is safe for humans. Lead builds up in the body over time and is a “toxic metal” that can be harmful even at low levels, especially to children, the agency said.

“A dose of lead that would have little effect on an adult can have significant effects on a child. In children, low levels of exposure are associated with damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems, learning disabilities, short stature, hearing loss, and impairment of blood cell formation and function,” the EPA's website states.

The WHO estimates that nearly one million people lost their lives due to lead exposure in 2019. Due to the long-term health effects of lead, 21.7 million years of life lost due to disability and death worldwide are attributable to lead.

“High levels of lead exposure can cause severe damage to the brain and central nervous system, leading to coma, convulsions and even death. Children who survive severe lead poisoning may suffer permanent mental retardation and behavioral problems,” the WHO said on its website.

Lower values ​​for other brands

Consumer Reports collected about three samples each of 36 different spice products, including cinnamon, garam masala and several spice blends. Major spice brands were purchased at conventional grocery stores, and smaller brands were purchased at international stores in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, as well as online.

In addition to the 12 brands with lead levels above 1 ppm, 18 brands of various cinnamon varieties or spice blends had lead levels between 0.87 ppm and 0.23 ppm, the report said, while six cinnamon products were found to have lower levels.

These include 365 Whole Foods Market ground cinnamon and organic ground cinnamon, which contained 0.12 ppm and 0.02 ppm of lead, respectively. Morton & Bassett San Francisco 100% organic ground cinnamon, Loisa organic cinnamon, and Sadaf cinnamon powder all tested at 0.04 ppm of lead. Sadaf's seven-spice blend had even higher lead levels, at 0.15 ppm.

However, because Consumer Reports' tests examined only three samples of each brand, the results cannot indicate whether similar levels of lead are found in all products sold under that brand name, says James Rogers, director of food safety research and testing at Consumer Reports.

“We don't have the resources to test hundreds and hundreds of samples, which would be the right thing to do,” Rogers said. “This is a sample test of each product and can be a starting point for the consumer to mitigate risk by recognizing that lead is present in our soil and water and that there may be other sources of lead in their diet as well.”

In the fall of 2023, extremely high levels of lead were found in cinnamon-flavored children's applesauce pouches imported from Ecuador and sold by the brands WanaBana, Schnucks and Weis. The lead concentrations were thousands of times higher than those found in any test of condiments – between about 2,300 ppm and about 5,100 ppm, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Since then, the FDA has issued health warnings to consumers pointing out the high lead levels in various cinnamon products. The most recent warning in August listed 10 different cinnamon products with lead levels as high as 3.93 ppm.

Although most manufacturers have voluntarily recalled their products from the shelves, the FDA does not have the authority to require manufacturers to do so, Rogers said.

“The FDA doesn't have mandatory recall authority, so they rely on the company to do the right thing, which they don't always do,” he said. “There are no legal limits for lead in cinnamon, so there's no enforcement power to force a recall. All they can do is issue public health warnings.”

The fundamental problem is that no one is taking care of the store, said Dr. Pieter Cohen, an associate professor of medicine at the Cambridge Health Alliance in Somerville, Massachusetts, who was not involved in Consumer Reports' analysis.

“Literally no one checks how many heavy metals Americans consume through their food. the food, “It contains many common foods, including cinnamon,” says Cohen, who regularly tests consumer products to see if their ingredients match what's listed on the label.

“The FDA has not taken a position on what level of lead is acceptable in cinnamon, and it is up to companies to decide how much lead they can put in their products,” Cohen said, “and that is a concerning situation.”

CNN has reached out to the FDA for a response and a spokesperson said the agency recommends that people stop using these specific cinnamon powder products and discard them once a public health alert has been issued.

“As for other types of cinnamon that people may have at home, current findings from our retail cinnamon powder sampling and our ongoing analysis of results from our state retail partners' cinnamon powder sampling do not indicate that there are safety concerns with other products,” FDA spokeswoman Courtney Rhodes said in an email.

In addition, manufacturers are not explicitly required to test ingredients or finished products for heavy metals, even those marketed for consumption by infants and young children, Rhodes said.

However, as part of the Biden administration's fiscal year 2025 budget proposal, the FDA wants to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to require industry to test finished products for contaminants and maintain testing records for inspection by FDA officials.

In addition, Rhodes continued, the FDA is requesting “new authority to remotely access the records of these test results and to review these test results whenever necessary.”