A Dozen Cinnamon Products Contain ‘Troubling’ Amounts of Lead, Report Finds
Which brands should you use instead?
Fajrul Islam/Getty Images
The run-up to this year’s baking season has brought some not-so-sweet news: A surprising percentage of cinnamon powers and spice mixtures commonly found in our pantries have been found to contain alarmingly high levels of lead.
In a test of 36 ground cinnamon products and cinnamon-containing spice blends, including garam masala and five-spice powder, sold in both large, mainstream and smaller, niche grocery stores across three states and online, Consumer Reports found that 12 of them — fully one-third — contained levels of lead it called “troubling.”
The non-profit consumer organization’s testing follows a warning about elevated levels of lead in several other cinnamon products issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March, as well as subsequent testing by the FDA that determined that 17 additional cinnamon products contained elevated levels of lead. Many of these products have already been recalled.
In the new Consumer Reports testing, a dozen products were found to contain more than one part per million of lead, which is the threshold above which New York (curiously, the only U.S. state that regulates heavy metals in spices) issues a recall, according to Consumer Reports. The organization says it has shared its findings with officials in New York so they could pursue the matter.
The 12 brands Consumer Reports suggests consumers avoid because they contain levels of lead above 1 part per million are as follows: Paras Cinnamon Powder (with a lead content of 3.52 ppm), EGB Cinnamon Powder (2.91 ppm), Mimi’s Products Ground Cinnamon (2.03 ppm), 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), You Yee Brand Five Spice Powder (1.25 ppm), BaiLiFeng Five Spice Powder (1.15 ppm), Spicy King Five Spices Powder (1.05 ppm), Badia Cinnamon Powder (1.03 ppm), and Deep Cinnamon Powder (1.02 ppm).
Consumer Reports’ director of food safety and testing, James Rogers, PhD, says consuming even a quarter teaspoon of any of these products puts you over the amount of lead considered safe to consume in a day. The lead accumulates and remains in the body, posing health risks from even small amounts. Consequently, if you have any of these products, Consumer Reports recommends that you throw them away.
If you have one of the products found to contain more lead than is deemed safe, Toby Amidor, MS, RD, CDN, nutrition expert and author of Health Shots, says, you should immediately stop using and dispose of it. If you suspect that you or someone you know has been exposed to elevated lead levels in cinnamon – or from any other source – you should speak to your healthcare provider. “Most people have no obvious immediate symptoms of lead exposure,” Amidor notes.
Lead exposure in children and pregnant women can lead to brain and nervous system damage that may result in developmental delays as well as issues with learning and behavior. For adults, negative effects to lead exposure may include issues with the immune and reproductive systems, as well as potential kidney damage and high blood pressure.
Of the remaining two dozen cinnamon products tested by Consumer Reports, 18 of them were deemed “OK to Use” and six were named “Best to Use” because they contained the least amount of lead.
The six considered the best options for consumer use are as follows: Sadaf Seven Spice (with a lead content of 0.15 ppm), 365 Whole Foods Market Ground Cinnamon (0.12 ppm), Loisa Organic Cinnamon (0.04 ppm), Morton & Bassett San Francisco 100% Organic Ground Cinnamon (0.04 ppm), Sadaf Cinnamon Powder (0.04 ppm), 365 Whole Foods Market Organic Ground Cinnamon (0.02 ppm).
Consumer Reports full report can be found here.
Related Content:
