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!
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!
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 that 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 that this is a product that is consumed daily by so many (combined with the solid scientific consensus that there is no safe level of Lead exposure for humans and the fact 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 you in making that choice.
- 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 do 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 – as many people use this product).
- 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 their manufacturing process and manufacturing facility to see if we can help them determine the source of the Lead in this product, and possibly help them clean up the product, so it no longer has any detectable Lead contamination.
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 their products to test positive below these levels.
- This is a (perhaps intentional?) misunderstanding/ misinterpretation the food industry makes — a misunderstanding which food manufacturers use to justify the presence of heavy metals in their 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).
“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):
- Sea Salt (Oregon, USA)
- Amazon link for this product: https://amzn.to/3Y3Xehm
- Article with the lab test report for this product
- Organic Einkorn Flour (Italy)
- Amazon link for this product: https://amzn.to/3LIqxix
- Article with the lab test report for this product
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Sparkling Grape-Flavored Tonic
- Amazon link for this product: https://amzn.to/4cjFYZu
- Article with the lab test report for this product
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Organic Soy Milk
- Amazon link for this product: https://amzn.to/4dwev8l
- Article with lab report to be published shortly
- 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.
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 the health of children. The available proposed safety thresholds (and guidance) for foods consumed by adults are not set at levels protective of human health and therefore are not relevant to the work we do here at Lead Safe Mama, LLC.
This is the Lead Safe Mama Amazon affiliate link to purchase a test kit similar to what we use for the laboratory testing we are doing.
To see more articles related to the laboratory testing of foods and supplements being done by Lead Safe Mama, LLC (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.
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.
Lab report for the product pictured above:
Lynn says
This is such a bummer. Is there any way to add more apple cider vinegar brands to the list. Apple Cider Vinegar is the bees knees for healing so many ailments and just good to take in general. Really want something better then Braggs now! Thank you!
Angelo says
Agreed. I use the organic Simply Nature brand from Aldi, and I’d like to see how it rates.
Serina says
I’m really glad to hear someone has reached out to them. I sat here staring at the results for a few minutes, struggling to pin down how exactly I felt about them. I had several questions so I read on and you answered them, I too have used this as a supplement and it is part of a very special recipe I make of a delicious cilantro garlic probiotic dressing/dip, something I make for our health.
I had to sit here and decide not to make that anymore until a safer vinegar (I want it to be this one so bad) emerges. I was expecting low arsenic but nope, they’ve managed to make an almost clean product, they’re so close!! I hope they will fix the lead too. I cannot feel good about making something for our health that I know contains lead.
I know people who take a shot of this after every meal. I hope Bragg understands that’s a good enough reason to clean out the lead.
I cautiously believe this is a company that cares so I’ll be watching for their response to this and am hopeful to buy it again soon. Going to miss this more than chocolate, more than chips, more than cereal. Help a girl out, Bragg!
Mila says
Thank you, Tamara! I will stop using this product too.
Pen says
It is very simple to make apple cider vinegar at home, it just takes a couple months. Throw apple parts in a jar of distilled water with some sugar, stir every few days for a couple weeks, strain the apple out, and let it continue to ferment to your liking, usually several more weeks.
Terri Evans says
Hi Tamara,
A suggestion for an alternative to Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar, if you would like to test it is Fairchilds. It is an organic family owned company in your neck of the woods. Ive been using it and like it even better than Braggs since I learned that Bill Gates has his hand in the Braggs company now.
Thanks for all you do.
Terri
Angelo says
Thank you very much for all you do. I’m 65, just started on Medicare, and I’m really concerned about living healthy. I’ve been using ACV for about two years now, but I use the organic Simply Nature brand from Aldi, mainly because it’s almost half the price of Bragg’s. I see on the label that this Aldi brand ACV is a product of Italy, where I hope the EU regulations apply. Hopefully, someday, you might do a heavy metals test on this product, and more of Aldi products.
Thanks again!
Mark says
I also buy this brand from Aldi. Please test this product!
fiona says
Could you test “Fairchild’s” brand of Organic ACV? Apparently they use cleaner organic apples without the waxy coating and their products are not diluted as much as Bragg is. Maybe the Lead is coming from the water they use. Who knows…
Verbena says
Thank you in advance for adding Costco’s Kirkland Signature Organic Raw And Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar to your testing queue. I’ve been using it for several years to make homemade shrubs with organic fruit and it never occurred to me that it might have lead. What a giant bummer!! If it’s raw and organic, where might the lead be introduced into the product? I think a lot of folks use the Costco ACV as it’s a good product for a decent price.
I so appreciate your dedication (time, energy, money, emotional labor) to this cause, but at what point will the USDA or appropriate government agency take on the responsibility of making sure our food systems are free of lead and other toxins and are safe for human consumption?