17 Ground-Cinnamon Products Could Be Contaminated With Lead, the FDA Warns
Don’t buy them, and throw away any you may already have
The Food and Drug Administration alerted consumers in the U.S. on March 6, 2024, not to buy or use certain lots of six brands of ground cinnamon after testing found they had elevated levels of lead. In July and August, after testing by New York and other states that was confirmed by the FDA, the agency added 11 additional brands of cinnamon to the list.
The FDA began testing cinnamon sold at various stores after fruit purée apple pouches by Schnucks, WanaBana, and Weis were linked to cases of lead poisoning in more than 460 children. The cinnamon in the products was determined to be the source of the heavy metal.
Source: FDA Source: FDA
The FDA has called on distributors to voluntarily recall the products, but until that happens, these brands might still be available on store shelves. In addition to not buying these brands, consumers should check their spice racks for them and throw them away.
The amount of lead found in these products is nowhere near what was found in the cinnamon used in the fruit purée pouches but was high enough to suggest that they may be unsafe for prolonged use, the agency said.
“It’s reassuring that the FDA is following through on this investigation and being diligent,” says Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports. “Yet it’s alarming that lead is being found in these additional products because it demonstrates that the problem is more pervasive than we might want to believe.”
What’s more, Ronholm says, it highlights the need for the FDA to focus efforts on preventing this kind of contamination in the first place.
An FDA spokesperson told CR that the agency does not know the source of the lead contamination at this time but that it has no reason to suspect that these cinnamon products are linked to Negasmart in Ecuador, the supplier of the cinnamon in Schnucks, WanaBana, and Weis fruit purée pouches. The FDA did not respond to questions about when consumers might expect the products to be recalled.
Earlier this year, CR performed tests of 10 brands of fruit purée pouches, some with cinnamon and some without, from major brands. Those tests found that in two products—Earth’s Best Organic Sweet Potato, Cinnamon Flax & Oat Pouch and Mama Bear Organic Apple, Banana, Cinnamon, Oats Pouch—the lead levels were high enough that children should eat less than one serving per day. The other products either had no lead or levels that were so low a child could still consume two or more servings per day.
Editor’s Note: The article, originally published March 6, 2024, has been updated to include comments from the FDA. It was updated again on July 25, July 30, and August 30, 2024, to include additional brands announced by the FDA.
@consumerreports Despite the dangers of consuming lead, we still have no national limit on heavy metals in spices. Tap the link in our bio to sign our petition demanding the FDA set and enforce strict limits on lead and toxic heavy metals in spices like cinnamon. #foodtok #cinnamon #foodtiktok #foodsafety
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