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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 six product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
• All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable.
• Please check out our press page to see some of the amazing coverage of our work so far this year!

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This is an ad-free article.

Advertising and affiliate income help Lead Safe Mama, LLC cover the costs of the work we do here (independent consumer goods testing and childhood Lead poisoning prevention advocacy). We have removed ads from most of our more widely-read articles (and newly published articles, too — like this one!) to make them easier for you to read. In addition to supporting this work by starting any shopping you might be doing with a click on our affiliate links, if you would like to support the independent consumer goods testing and childhood Lead poisoning prevention advocacy work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC by making a contribution (which will also help us keep our more widely-read articles ad-free), click here. Thank you!

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Note for context:

This product is obviously not a baby food, however there are no standards for total content levels of heavy metals in foods for humans across the board (total content levels, as measured in parts per billion) — so, as always, we share the context here of what is considered safe for children.

• That said, given the fact this product is usually consumed in very small amounts, you may choose to continue using this product even with this information.
• Conversely, given the fact this is a product that is often consumed daily by so many (combined with the solid scientific consensus there is no safe level of Lead exposure for humans and that the impact of Lead exposure is cumulative over a lifetime) you may choose to no longer use this product as a result of learning this information.
• Our goal at Lead Safe Mama, LLC is to give you scientific (replicable) data to help you make informed decisions for yourself and your family — so whatever choice you make, you now have additional information to support in making it.
• My family is choosing to no longer use this product in response to this information (my husband used to take two tablespoons daily as a supplement).
• We hope to conduct some follow-up testing to determine if we can find a cleaner, similar product (one that tests non-detect for Lead) that can be used for the same purposes (as a daily supplement like many people use this product for).
• We have also reached out to the company (indirectly, through a mutual friend) and offered that we could consult with them by conducting an audit of the manufacturing process and manufacturing facility to see if we can help determine the source of Lead in this product, and possibly clean up the product, so it no longer has any detectable Lead contamination.

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Important Background: What is an Action Level?

Please note the following key points:

The original lab report for this product is below (at the bottom of this page).

The graphic above shows the levels of metals detected in this product (in red) along with the low threshold of detection (in orange, above the action levels discussed/ or in green, below the action levels discussed) for each metal not detected with the laboratory testing Lead Safe Mama, LLC had completed for this product. The numbers are juxtaposed (in blue) to the “Action Level” proposed by the medical and scientific community in 2021 as part of the Baby Food Safety Act. For this round of testing, SimpleLab (our laboratory testing provider) had a change of labs and their low threshold of detection is slightly higher than in previous testing rounds.

• These 2021 levels were proposed as “Action Levels” because they are (in fact) protective of human health.
• An “Action Level” is NOT the same as a “Maximum Allowable Level.”
  • Many food manufacturers misinterpret guidance on heavy metals to mean “allowable levels” and consider it reasonable for products to test positive below these levels.
  • This is a (perhaps intentional?) misunderstanding/ misinterpretation the food industry makes — a misunderstanding that food manufacturers use to justify the presence of heavy metals in products.
• Heavy metals accumulate in the body.
  • It is the cumulative/ aggregate impact of heavy metal exposure (over a lifetime) that makes even small/ incidental/ seemingly trivial exposures particularly damaging and dangerous. You can read more about that here.
• Once a food product has the amount of heavy metal (Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, or Arsenic) noted (above) as the “Action Level,” that product is officially considered (by the scientific and medical community) unsafe for consumption by children as toxicants (found at-or-above these levels) are in the range of heavy metal levels that have been demonstrated to cause lasting harm.
• Action Levels are unrelated to serving size.
  • Action Levels are relevant for any amount of a food product that may be consumed (any quantity of the food in question).
  • PPB (parts per billion/ ppb) measurements are a percentage (albeit a very small percentage) and apply to any quantity of the food product tested.
  • For more discussion about serving size considerations (and why relying on “serving size” to limit toxicant exposure is not a relevant metric/ not a metric protective of human health), read this article.
• These “Action Levels” proposed in 2021 are the levels at which the scientific and medical community believe the manufacturer (or government) needs to take ACTION to fix the problem.
  • One “Action” would be for the manufacturer to take steps to reduce the levels of toxicants in the food product.
  • Another “Action” would be for the manufacturer to cease sales of the product until the product could be made safe.
  • Another “Action” would be for the manufacturer to inform the public that a specific food product has an unsafe level of the metal detected at-or-above the “Action Level” — making a highly-visible public announcement regarding which relevant batches of the product should be recalled/ no longer consumed.
• The Action Levels proposed with the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021 were not arbitrary toxicant levels, but were proposed because they are the levels most protective of human health. However, the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021 was not passed into law.
• Regardless of the fact the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021 never passed into law — and it is therefore legal to have foods and supplements marketed for consumption by children test positive for Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, and Arsenic at-or-above these levels — these Action Levels still reflect the current (modern/ relevant) advice of the medical and scientific communities as levels both achievable by the industry and safeguards of infant and toddler health.
• Food industry lobbyists fought against formalizing these proposed “Action Levels” as a government standard, alleging the levels were unachievable.
  • The image below (with the number ELEVEN) links to a landing page with 11 food products we have already tested this year (2024), all of which have been “non-detect” for toxicants with low thresholds of detection (for Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, and Arsenic) far below the 2021 proposed Action Levels.
  • These 11 food products (about 10% of the foods Lead Safe Mama, LLC has tested and reported on so far since March 2024 when we began laboratory testing foods) clearly demonstrate these Action Levels as achievable across a range of food types (salt, flour, coffee, oatmeal, chia seeds, hemp seeds, soy milk, packaged fruit-based snacks, beverages, and more).
• The legitimacy of these levels as “Action Levels”/ “Levels of Concern” (even though they were not adopted as law) is mirrored by the legitimacy of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ level of concern for Lead in water, which is 1 ppb despite the FDA’s official “level of concern” for Lead in water being 15 ppb (you can read more about that here).

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“Simply Not Achievable”

While the packaged, processed food industry would have consumers (and the government) believe the standards proposed in 2021 are unachievable, this industry position (an oft-rearticulated response to nearly every set of laboratory test results for food we have published to date) is simply not true. It is possible to make safer processed, packaged food products that fall well below the safety levels for toxicants proposed within the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021. To read more about the 11 food items Lead Safe Mama, LLC has tested and reported on so far that resulted in “non-detect” for Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, and Arsenic (with the limits of detection as reported for each product), click the image below (with the big number 11)!

Here are direct Amazon links to those 11 safer products as well (this list is growing alongside the food testing we are organizing — to see the updated list at any time, click the graphic with the number above):

1. Sea Salt (Oregon, USA)
   • Amazon link for this product: https://amzn.to/3Y3Xehm
   • Article with the lab test report for this product
2. Organic Einkorn Flour (Italy)
   • Amazon link for this product: https://amzn.to/3LIqxix
   • Article with the lab test report for this product
3. Organic, Gluten-Free, Sprouted Rolled Oats (Canada)
   • Amazon link for this product: https://amzn.to/3WIQ1BN
   • Article with the lab test report for this product
4. Organic, Non-GMO, Gluten-Free Chia Seeds (Mexico)
   • Amazon link for this product: https://amzn.to/3YvE7xC
   • Article with the lab test report for this product
5. Organic Espresso Roast Ground Coffee (Multi-Country Origin, Non-USA)
   • Amazon link for this product: https://amzn.to/3yo1eiL
   • Article with the lab test report for this product
6. Sparkling Grape-Flavored Tonic
   • Amazon link for this product: https://amzn.to/4cjFYZu
   • Article with the lab test report for this product
7. Pure Organic Layered Fruit Bars in Strawberry Banana Flavor
   • Amazon link for this product: https://amzn.to/3WQEekA
   • Article with the lab test report for this product
8. Pure Organic Layered Fruit Bars in Raspberry Lemonade Flavor
   • Amazon link for this product (sold in a box assortment, we haven’t found these sold separately): https://amzn.to/3XcFsIp
   • Article with the lab test report for this product
9. GoGo Squeez Organic Fruit On The Go in AppleApple Flavor
   • Amazon link for this product: https://amzn.to/3XhWYLe
   • Article with the lab test report for this product
10. Organic Soy Milk
    • Amazon link for this product: https://amzn.to/4dwev8l
    • Article with lab report to be published shortly
11. Organic Hemp Seeds
    • Amazon link for this product: https://amzn.to/4e05RP9
    • Article with lab report to be published shortly

Amazon links are affiliate links. 

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Published: October 24, 2024
Thursday

Hello! We are working on publishing a LOT of test results very quickly this month.

We will be updating this section of each article (with more information about the specific product and other similar products for context) as time permits, but we wanted to make sure the greater Lead Safe Mama community (and the general public) had access to this scientific data (about foods and supplements in their home) as quickly as possible.

Please scroll down to see the full laboratory test report for the product pictured above. Thank you for your patience.

As there are almost no reasonable safety thresholds proposed for toxicants (heavy metals) consumed by adults (in foods and supplements), our focus is (as always) on children’s health. The available proposed safety thresholds (and guidance) for foods consumed by adults are not set at levels protective of human health and are therefore not relevant to the work we do here at Lead Safe Mama, LLC.

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This is the Lead Safe Mama Amazon affiliate link to purchase a test kit similar to what we use for our laboratory testing.

To see more articles related to the laboratory testing of foods and supplements Lead Safe Mama, LLC is coordinating (including background on this initiative and safer food choices and guidelines), click the pink square below. To see the full, independent, third-party laboratory report for the product pictured above, please scroll down to the bottom of this page.

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Amazon links are affiliate links. If you purchase something after clicking on a Lead Safe Mama, LLC Amazon affiliate link, Lead Safe Mama, LLC may receive a percentage of what you spend — at no extra cost to you.

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Lab report for the product pictured above: