Justin’s Organic Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups test positive for unsafe levels of Lead & Cadmium: 2024 Laboratory Report

ByTamara Posted: Updated:
| | | | | | | | | | | |

  

Quick note from Tamara Rubin:

Most of the Halloween-type candies we have tested have come back positive for very high levels of Cadmium, in addition to many also testing positive for concerning levels of Lead and Arsenic. Cadmium has been documented as a known carcinogen for more than three decades.

While some parents might feel comfortable making the excuse that it is ok to consume these things as rare “treat,” I really think we need to re-examine our relationship to certain food in light of these test results. The foods that are specifically more concerning so far based on the testing we have completed to date are: Chocolate, seaweed, cinnamon, potato chips, rice, and cassava! These are all things my family is currently choosing to avoid.

In my opinion, even a “little bit” of a known carcinogen is too much of a risk.

My family has a history of cancer. Both of my parents died of cancer in the past decade. My husband’s mother died of an aggressive cancer when she was in her early 40’s (when my husband was just 18-years-old). My kids don’t have any grandparents anymore. Cancer has significantly impacted our family in more ways than I can express.

While my mother was tiny and did not eat much (5 ft. 2 in. and about 120 lbs at her heaviest, even though she thought she was “fat!”)… she was a major chocoholic. In light of all of these test results, I wonder to what degree her habit of having something chocolate nearly every day contributed to her early death (at 72, when she was otherwise strong and in very good health) caused by a very aggressive cancer.

I think we owe it to our kids to do better. We owe it to our kids to set them up for a long and healthy life, where they die of old age (not in pain, struggling with the impacts of chemotherapy).

I think we also owe it to our kids to not imprint “memories” of eating toxic candy as a “special treat,” instead taking them out for experiences as that “special treat.”

While my two youngest will be trick-or-treating today (more as an opportunity to interact with our neighbors and show off the costumes they made than to collect a bunch of candy!), all four of my boys will be home this week for a few days and we plan on celebrating the season by carving pumpkins, playing games, going for walks outside together, and probably having a (rice-free) meal at our favorite vegan Chinese restaurant. I’m also going to take them all bowling! I hope you also find ways to celebrate with your family that moves the emphasis away from creating memories focused on things that might cause long-term harm (like justifying eating candy with toxicants as a “special treat”). I apologize to those who might feel this is a radical approach — I understand if you personally have a different reaction to what we are learning together with this laboratory testing.

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 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 and supplement industry lobbyists fought against formalizing these proposed “Action Levels” as a government standard, alleging the levels were unachievable.
  • The list of safer choices (below) 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”

To reiterate: 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 and supplements that we have published to date) is simply not true.

It is possible to make safer processed, packaged food products and supplements that fall well below the safety limits for toxicants proposed within the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021. To wit, the products listed below (the first section of the list below) tested “non-detect” for Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, and Arsenic — several even tested non-detect for Lead with the low threshold of detection being “less than 1.5 ppb.”

Below is an EXPANDING list of products (foods and supplements) that have tested “non-detect” for Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, and Arsenic with independent, third-party, crowd-funded laboratory testing coordinated by Lead Safe Mama, LLC (an Oregon-based small business with a unique community-collaborative business model and a focus on consumer goods safety and childhood Lead poisoning prevention).
–
The limits of detection for each of the metals tested are noted in the lab report for the specific product listed. To see the full lab report for any of these products, type the brand name into the search bar at the top of any page on Lead Safe Mama dot com (and scroll down to the bottom of the related article).
–
Flavors tested are noted, and other flavors of the same product (or other products from the same brand) have either not been tested or have been tested but did not yield similar results. Test results only apply to the specific products linked below.

LIST UPDATED November 26, 2024:

  1. Beverage — Olipop Grape Tonic: https://amzn.to/4cjFYZu
  2. Breakfast Item — 1 — Nature’s Path Envirokidz Organic Panda Puffs: https://amzn.to/4fo1crf
  3. Breakfast Item — 2 — One Degree Organic, Gluten-Free, Sprouted Rolled Oats (Canada): https://amzn.to/3WIQ1BN
  4. Candy — Cavendish & Harvey Wild Berry Drops, not Organic (Germany): https://amzn.to/3Z1Jxjr
  5. Coffee — 1 — Chameleon Handcrafted Organic Cold Brew Concentrate: https://amzn.to/3OcrH77
  6. Coffee — 2 — Death Wish Organic Espresso Roast Ground Coffee (Multi-country Origin, non-USA): https://amzn.to/3yo1eiL  
  7. Plant-Based Coffee Creamer — 1 — Laird Superfood Coconut Creamer: https://amzn.to/4fItA7A
  8. Dairy Coffee Creamer — 2 — Organic Valley Grassmilk Half and Half: https://amzn.to/4fHJIWT
  9. Fruit Snack — 1 — GoGo Squeez Organic Apple Sauce Pouch: https://amzn.to/3XhWYLe
  10. Fruit Snack — 2 — Pure Organic Layered Fruit Bars in Strawberry Banana Flavor: https://amzn.to/3WQEekA
  11. Fruit Snack — 3 — Once Upon A Farm Dairy Free Fruit Smoothie Pouch in Strawberry Banana Swirl Flavor: https://amzn.to/3CPMbAw
  12. Fruit Snack — 4 — Pure Organic Layered Fruit Bars in Raspberry Lemonade Flavor: https://amzn.to/3XcFsIp
  13. Infant Formula — 1 — Bobbie Organic Gentle Infant Formula Milk-Based Powder with Iron: https://amzn.to/3YYb849 
  14. Infant Formula — 2 — Bobbie Grass-Fed Milk-Based Powder with Iron: https://amzn.to/3ZlAaeJ
  15. Infant Formula — 3 — ByHeart Infant Formula (USA-Made, not organic): https://amzn.to/48DJjTb
  16. Infant Formula — 4 — HiPP Bio Combiotik Infant Formula Powder – Stage 1 (imported)
  17. Infant Formula — 5 — Holle Bio Goat Stage 2 Infant Formula (for 6-10 months, organic, European — Swiss/ German/ Austrian) is not available on Amazon, but the Stage 3 version of this product is (not yet tested, but will likely test similarly): https://amzn.to/3BVU7zI
  18. Infant Formula — 6 — Kendamil Goat Infant Formula (not organic): This product may be available at Target (it is not available on Amazon)
  19. Infant Formula — 7 — Kendamil Organic Follow-On Milk (European/ British Toddler Formula, for 6-12 months, Cow Milk): Not available on Amazon (report link)
  20. Infant Formula — 8 — Kendamil Organic Infant Formula (Cow Milk): Not available on Amazon but may be available at Target
  21. Ingredient — 1 (salt) — Jacobsen’s Sea Salt (Oregon, USA): https://amzn.to/4dcbk5L
  22. Ingredient — 2 (baking flour) — Jovial Organic Einkorn Flour (Italy): https://amzn.to/3LIqxix 
  23. Ingredient — 3 (seeds) — Costco Kirkland Organic Hemp Seeds: https://amzn.to/4e05RP9
  24. Ingredient — 4 (seeds) — Navitas Organic, Gluten-Free Chia Seeds (Mexico): https://amzn.to/3YvE7xC
  25. Oil — 1 — Chosen Foods 100% Avocado Oil (not organic): https://amzn.to/3YDZSuv
  26. Oil — 2 — Dr. Adorable’s Organic Perilla Seed Oil (Korea): https://amzn.to/3NDt7Yc
  27. Plant-Based Milk — 1 — Kiki Milk Organic Plant Based Milk (original flavor): https://amzn.to/3AA6Qrt
  28. Plant-Based Milk — 2 — West Soy Unflavored Unsweetened Organic Soy Milk: https://amzn.to/4dwev8l
  29. Supplement — 1 — Nordic Naturals Omega-3 Fish Oil: https://amzn.to/48q1j2V
  30. Supplement — 2 — Mary Ruth’s Organic Toddler Multivitamin Liquid Drops with Iron: https://amzn.to/3YPhcgx

Stand by for more!
–
BONUS FOUR: Below are FOUR additional products that each tested positive for trace (very low levels of) Arsenic — including the product featured above in this report — at levels considered safe by all standards (with the limits of detection noted in the lab report for the specific product listed):

  1. Infant Formula — Kendamil Goat Toddler Milk, not Organic (positive for traces of Arsenic): May be available at Target or through other online retailers of European infant formulas
  2. Fruit Snack — That’s It Apple Cherry Bars, not Organic (positive for traces of Arsenic): https://amzn.to/4fHkSWV
  3. Oil — Chosen Foods 100% Pure Avocado Oil — Organic (postive for traces of Arsenic): https://amzn.to/3BVQYQa
  4. Supplement — Now Sunflower Lecithin, not Organic (positive for traces of Arsenic): https://amzn.to/3AFdHzO

Amazon links are affiliate links. 

Published: October 31, 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 are therefore 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 our laboratory testing.

To see more articles related to the laboratory testing for foods and supplements Lead Safe Mama, LLC is hosting (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:

shop lead free banner

Never Miss an Important Article Again!

Join our Email List

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *