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Plantation Blackstrap Unsulphured Molasses tests positive for Lead, Cadmium, & Arsenic: November 2024 Laboratory Report

2024· 2024 Article· 2024 Food Article· 2024 Laboratory Testing· Blackstrap Molasses· Food· Food Testing· Molasses· Plantation Molasses· Supplement Testing· Supplements

  

Quick note from Tamara Rubin:

Based on research done to date (by others) we anticipated that this product would test positive for unsafe levels of Lead, but wanted to quantify the concern for ourselves. We chose to start our molasses testing with this brand as it is the most popular and well-known brand historically in the United States.

A primary reason we wanted to test a molasses product is that it is often prescribed as a supplement – even to children with a history of Lead exposure – to increase dietary iron. Obviously this is a misguided use of the product given the Lead level that we found through this testing. Given the specific levels of Lead, Cadmium, and Arsenic found, this product should never be given to children as a supplement, and especially not to children with an iron deficiency due to a history of Lead exposure.

This is the first molasses product that has been tested by Lead Safe Mama, LLC. We are planning on following up with testing some additional molasses products, starting with an organic option (please check out our campaigns on GoFundMe if you would like to support some of this additional testing). In light of these specific findings (see the full lab report below), we would like to encourage those in the medical community to reexamine their recommendation of using molasses for mineral supplementation.

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, all of the 25 products listed 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 a list of 25 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).
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The limits of detection for each of the metals tested for 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 of Lead Safe Mama dot com (and scroll down to the bottom of the related article).
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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 have similar test results. The test results only apply to the specific products linked below.

LIST UPDATED November 12, 2024:

  1. Beverage — Olipop Grape Tonic: https://amzn.to/4cjFYZu
  2. Breakfast Item — Nature’s Path Envirokidz Organic Panda Puffs: https://amzn.to/4fo1crf
  3. Breakfast Item — 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 — Chameleon Handcrafted Organic Cold Brew Concentrate: https://amzn.to/3OcrH77
  6. Coffee — Death Wish Organic Espresso Roast Ground Coffee (Multi-country Origin, non-USA): https://amzn.to/3yo1eiL  
  7. Plant-Based Coffee Creamer — Laird Superfood Coconut Creamer (for coffee): https://amzn.to/4fItA7A
  8. Dairy Coffee Creamer — Organic Valley Grassmilk Half and Half: https://amzn.to/4fHJIWT
  9. Fruit Snack — GoGo Squeez Organic Apple Sauce Pouch: https://amzn.to/3XhWYLe
  10. Fruit Snack — Pure Organic Layered Fruit Bars in Strawberry Banana Flavor: https://amzn.to/3WQEekA
  11. Fruit Snack — Pure Organic Layered Fruit Bars in Raspberry Lemonade Flavor: https://amzn.to/3XcFsIp
  12. Infant Formula — ByHeart Infant Formula (USA-Made, not organic): https://amzn.to/48DJjTb
  13. Infant Formula — Holle Bio Goat Stage 2 Infant Formula (for 6-10 months, organic, European — Swiss/ German/ Austrian): 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
  14. Infant Formula — Kendamil Organic Follow-On Milk (European/ British Toddler Formula, for 6-12 months): Not available on Amazon (report link)
  15. Infant Formula — Kendamil Organic Infant Formula (Cow Milk): Not available on Amazon but may be available at Target
  16. Ingredient (salt) — Jacobsen’s Sea Salt (Oregon, USA): https://amzn.to/4dcbk5L
  17. Ingredient (baking flour) — Jovial Organic Einkorn Flour (Italy): https://amzn.to/3LIqxix 
  18. Ingredient (seeds) — Costco Kirkland Organic Hemp Seeds: https://amzn.to/4e05RP9
  19. Ingredient (seeds) — Navitas Organic, Gluten-Free Chia Seeds (Mexico): https://amzn.to/3YvE7xC
  20. Oil — Chosen Foods 100% Avocado Oil (not organic): https://amzn.to/3YDZSuv
  21. Oil — Dr. Adorable’s Organic Perilla Seed Oil (Korea): https://amzn.to/3NDt7Yc
  22. Plant-Based Milk — Kiki Milk Organic Plant Based Milk (original flavor): https://amzn.to/3AA6Qrt
  23. Plant-Based Milk — West Soy Unflavored Unsweetened Organic Soy Milk: https://amzn.to/4dwev8l
  24. Supplement — Nordic Naturals Omega-3 Fish Oil: https://amzn.to/48q1j2V
  25. Supplement — Mary Ruth’s Organic Toddler Multivitamin Liquid Drops with Iron: https://amzn.to/3YPhcgx

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

  1. Fruit Snack — That’s It Apple Cherry Bars, Not Organic (positive for traces of Arsenic): https://amzn.to/4fHkSWV
  2. Oil — Chosen Foods 100% Pure Avocado Oil — Organic (postive for traces of Arsenic): https://amzn.to/3BVQYQa
  3. Supplement — Now Sunflower Lecithin, Not Organic (positive for traces of Arsenic): https://amzn.to/3AFdHzO

Amazon links are affiliate links. 

Published: November 13, 2024
Wednesday

Hello! We are continually working on publishing a LOT of test results very quickly this month. We sent 67 products to the lab for testing in September 2024 and 61 products in October 2024. We have not yet reported on all of those products as we are still waiting to receive final reports from the lab for many of them.

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 ensure 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 irrelevant 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 of foods and supplements Lead Safe Mama, LLC is conducting (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:

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