For those new to the Lead Safe Mama website:
Tamara Rubin is a multiple-federal-award-winning independent advocate for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety, and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children (two of her four sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005).
- Tamara owns and runs Lead Safe Mama, LLC — a unique community collaborative woman-owned small business for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety.
- Since July of 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for five product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
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Published: June 26, 2024
Wednesday
Lead Safe Mama, LLC had Bob’s Red Mill Tapioca Flour tested by a laboratory (through SimpleLab). In the United States, Tapioca is generally the name for a Cassava/ Yuca-derived flour product that is more processed/ processed in a different way than products simply called Cassava Flour or Yuca Flour.
This product (pictured above) tested positive for Lead but at a level significantly lower than most other Cassava products we have tested. To see the full laboratory report for the exact sample of this product tested by Lead Safe Mama, LLC, please scroll down. Please take note of the low threshold of detection for metals other than Lead in this lab report. The low thresholds of detection for the other metals noted in this particular lab report (Mercury, Cadmium, and Arsenic) each demonstrate this product to be safe (for those specific metals) when compared to the regulatory standards proposed for children’s food in 2021 (more on that here).
While this product slightly exceeded the 2021 regulatory standard proposed for Lead (the “Action Level” set for Lead by the scientific and medical community as part of that proposed legislation was 5 ppb Lead, with 5 ppb Lead being the level at-or-above which a finished food product would be considered unsafe for consumption children) it is important to note that this product (Tapioca Flour) is never eaten by itself and (in most applications we are familiar with) is diluted (at least by half) with other ingredients (milk, juice, eggs, butter, etc.) for most finished products that use this ingredient. If (for example) this product were combined with other non-Lead-containing products (or very low Lead-containing products, relatively) the diluted Lead level of the finished food item that integrated this product might be as low as 3 ppb Lead or lower, resulting in the finished product falling below the 2021 proposed action level for Lead in food.
That said, it is always important to reiterate there is no safe level of Lead exposure for children (and for human beings for that matter) and the impacts of Lead are cumulative. Parents with concerns for Lead exposure (and especially parents wanting to eliminate all possible sources of Lead exposure) may choose not to purchase this product to use when cooking for their children. It is also important to highlight that this is the test result for one sample of the product tested and that other batches of this same product (from this same brand) might test positive for Lead at different levels. We will consider adding this to our testing schedule again in three to six months (to test another batch of the same product) if there is enough community interest in testing this product again.
Advice to my Family in Light of These Findings
In response to this testing (and pending any additional testing for other brands of Tapioca Flour that might change my considerations), my advice to my own family members will be as follows:
- We will continue to avoid/ significantly limit flour products and processed package snacks as we always have.
- In the event that they choose a packaged/ processed snack as a rare treat, IF a Tapioca ingredient (Tapioca Flour, Tapioca Starch, Tapioca Syrup) is far down on the list of ingredients on a product (not a primary ingredient in first, second, or third place on the list of ingredients on the package), I will not consider that a product that they should avoid entirely based solely on that factor (although they may want to avoid it given concerns for other ingredients — depending on what the other ingredients are). I will however recommend that they should limit consumption of that specific finished food product until we can do further testing of the product.
- As a mother of young adults and teens who were acutely Lead-poisoned as children, I will continue to recommend that they avoid anything with Tapioca Flour as a primary ingredient (or second or third ingredient), and I will also recommend they avoid cooking with Tapioca Flour/ Tapioca Starch in our home.
Some additional reading & links that may be of interest:
- The Lead Safe Mama affiliate link to purchase the test kits we used for this testing.
- Our landing page with links to all of the food test results for products we have tested.
- How to send your own food samples into a lab for testing (the cost is $195 per single food sample tested for Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, and Arsenic) or collaborate with Lead Safe Mama, LLC on the food testing we are doing.
- The Food category of articles here on Lead Safe Mama dot com.
Do you think that there is something intrinsically different between tapioca starch and cassava flour that makes tapioca starch lower, or this could be completely random (ie this batch of this brand is lower compared to other things you tested but another brand pr another batch of this brand could be as high as cassava flour?
I think it is a more pure product and possibly washed better / prepared in a cleaner environment & with a cleaner process than their Cassava flour. It also may be batch specific. I just updated the piece a bit too.
Thanks so much for your reply Tamara! It will be interesting to see if another batch (or brand of tapioca starch) tests similarly if you test it in the future! Have you tried reaching out to the company to see if they would do it and show the results publicly? If they actually come out low, maybe they would be happy to foot the bill and show it off?
Tapioca starch is derived from cassava – it is too bad it still has lead but at much much lower levels than cassava flour. Tapioca sugar and starch is used in everything these days so this is a little bit of a relief.
What flours do you use for baking ? What flours are safe??
This is the only one we have found that is toxicant free: https://tamararubin.com/2024/06/june-2024-laboratory-test-results-for-jovial-100-organic-einkorn-all-purpose-flour/
This is encouraging, I’m hoping it’s because tapioca is a cleaner product, and also that it’s not batch specific. I have no reason to think that it’s specific to Bob Redmill, as their Cassava flour was high in lead, so no indication of quality control wrt lead. I’m holding out on having occasional Against the Grain baguettes made with tapioca! Thanks so much Tamara.
Have you tested any other Tapioca Flour? I thought I was making a healthy pancake with coconut flour and tapioca flour.
Instead, I’ve been adding to toxic food levels for years!
Thank you for your work!
Any tests on coconut flour?
Thank you so much for testing this. I’ve been wondering about this so much so much since hearing cassava flour was so high!
Thank you for doing this testing. I’d love to see this product re-tested in the future, and other tapioca flours tested as well. We use this product medically to manage my daughter’s blood glucose (she has a disorder which prevents her body from being able to fast safely for more than a few hours). Raw tapioca is a slow digesting starch which keeps her from having dangerous hypoglycemic episodes. The more common alternative for this use is actually corn starch, which we tried first but she did not tolerate.
So what would be a safe substitute? Potato starch? Arrowroot? I’m panicking now because I just made a loaf of bread and the recipe called for a whopping amount of tapioca starch. Of course go figure, I’m breastfeeding and found out after the fact this info. Any tips on how to replace?