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Holy Kakow Organic Cacao Powder tests positive for very high level of Cadmium (Lead & Arsenic, too) — 2024 Lab Report

2024· 2024 Article· 2024 Food Article· Food· Food Testing

  

But Tamara, I thought you said this was a good brand?!

Well, yes… and no… but not exactly.

Below are two screenshots from my original article discussing making “Lead-Safe” hot chocolate.

In the original article I explained that EVEN THOUGH chocolate is one of the most contaminated foods (as noted in the closing scene of my documentary film, which we filmed in February 2012), in the absence of laboratory testing (something I did not yet have access to when I wrote this article back in 2016) the logic noted below included factors that might indicate the Lead level of this particular cocoa powder to not be as concerning compared to other cocoa powder and chocolate products.

When the cocoa powder is diluted (cut) with a significant amount of other ingredients that are likely low in Lead (milk, honey, vanilla, etc.) the Lead-level of the resultant hot chocolate beverage would likely fall in the “safe” range.

These considerations still hold true taking into account the Lead level found with our laboratory testing for this Holy Kakow product.

A level of 63 ppb Lead in a tablespoon or two of organic cocoa that is then diluted with 10 to 16 ounces of milk would likely result in a hot cocoa with a level of Lead considered safe by most (and nearly all) standards (possibly similar to what we found in the M&M’s chocolate candies, linked here).

Unfortunately, until we began testing foods in March 2024, I did not have access to any data points about what the Cadmium levels in foods on grocery store shelves might be (and what contributing factors might increase those Cadmium levels), including what levels of Cadmium one might actually expect to find in cocoa powder on store shelves today.

Our original (2013) article discusses the concern for Cadmium in chocolate (link here), but I did not know what actual Cadmium levels one might expect to see in products based on various considerations (country of origin, manufacturing equipment, single source, etc).

That said, I was shocked to learn about the Cadmium level in this product and think it is worthy of being reported to the FDA as a potential concern (given it is far above the European standard levels of permissible amounts of Cadmium in chocolate, linked here for more info).

For me personally, the lab test results for this product support my oft-reiterated statements:

  1. Chocolate is one of the most contaminated foods and should be consumed very sparingly (if at all).
  2. Chocolate should be considered a “flavor” and not a food item (just as vanilla is used sparingly as a flavor).
  3. Chocolate products should never be eaten alone and especially not dark chocolate (as is, unfortunately, recommended by many “nutritionists” and others who share on the “health benefits” of dark chocolate).
  4. Any potential health benefits of dark chocolate are clearly counteracted by the negative health impacts of the toxicants pervasively found in chocolate.

That said, the person who manages to make a toxicant-free chocolate would likely become very rich very quickly since this is such a “unicorn” as far as food products go (highly desirable and impossible to find).

Original article screenshot #1)

Original article screenshot #2)

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).

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!

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):

  1. Sea Salt (Oregon, USA)
  2. Organic Einkorn Flour (Italy)
  3. Organic, Gluten-Free, Sprouted Rolled Oats (Canada)
  4. Organic, Non-GMO, Gluten-Free Chia Seeds (Mexico)
  5. Organic Espresso Roast Ground Coffee (Multi-Country Origin, Non-USA)
  6. Sparkling Grape-Flavored Tonic
  7. Pure Organic Layered Fruit Bars in Strawberry Banana Flavor
  8. Pure Organic Layered Fruit Bars in Raspberry Lemonade Flavor
  9. GoGo Squeez Organic Fruit On The Go in AppleApple Flavor
  10. Organic Soy Milk
  11. Organic Hemp Seeds

Amazon links are affiliate links. 

Published: October 13, 2024
Sunday

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

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.

Please do check out the other links on this page for additional information about the truly independent, third-party, laboratory testing we are conducting on food products.

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.

Some additional reading & links that may be of interest:

  1. This is the Lead Safe Mama Amazon affiliate link to purchase the test kits we used for this testing.
  2. Here’s our landing page with links to all the food test results for products we have tested and reported on so far.
  3. Here’s our landing page listing all the food testing we have in-progress (at the lab/ pending, etc.) — please consider making a contribution in support of any of the pending crowd-funded foods if they are a food you use! Thank you.
  4. Here’s information on 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) and how to collaborate with Lead Safe Mama, LLC on the food testing we are hosting.

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:

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Pam says

    Truly sickened by these results. We used this product in baking for about a year. Never again. Thank you for testing this one.

    Reply

  2. evelyn says

    I wonder what is the largest contributor of contamination for these chocolate products… if contamination through processing, I wonder how K’ul chocolate would test because they get the raw bean and do their own processing on stainless steel equipment. https://kulchocolate.com/

    Reply

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