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Post by SAR01 on Sept 12, 2024 13:38:57 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2024/09/12/health/lead-cinnamon.html
Sept. 12, 2024, 1:06 p.m. ET
One dozen of 36 cinnamon products tested by a consumer group contained elevated levels of lead, according to a study released on Thursday that reinforced concerns about metals in foods after tainted cinnamon applesauce poisoned dozens of children last year.
The study, by Consumer Reports, documented levels that were far lower than the amounts discovered last year.
The Consumer Reports team tested the spice and found high levels in lead in 12 items sold at discount stores and ethnic markets, with lead levels reaching 3.5 parts per million. New York, the only state with tough lead standards in spices, recalls spices — among them curry powder, chili powder, cumin and five-spice powder — with more than one part per million of lead. Consumer Reports advised that people throw out items with that amount.
Badia, one common brand, sold cinnamon with one part per million of lead, according to the report. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
While the levels in the cinnamon applesauce recalled last year were “astronomical,” those in the new report were still 1,000 times as high as the levels that concern lead-exposure experts who focus on children’s health, said Tomás R. Guilarte, a neuroscience and environmental health professor at Florida International University.
“These are extremely high levels of lead,” he said. “Clearly they shouldn’t be used.”
Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration urged a series of recalls of cinnamon products. The discoveries provided the impetus for consumer advocacy groups to generate greater public awareness of the dangers of lead and other metals, and for the agency to push Congress for tough limits on those heavy metals in food.
An agency spokeswoman said the F.D.A. had no authority to require companies to test final products for heavy metals, including foods consumed by babies and toddlers, who are particularly sensitive tothe effects of lead. Their intestines absorb more lead, and their blood-brain barrier is still developing, Dr. Guilarte said.
What to Know about Lead Exposure in Children
The agency said it was asking Congress for the power to require food companies to do such testing and to review company records remotely whenever necessary.
“There has to be some level of enforcement and testing,” Dr. Guilarte said.
Earlier this year, the F.D.A. conducted tests and pressed for recalls of several cinnamon powders, including one by Supreme Tradition sold at Dollar Tree stores, which contained two to three parts per million of lead. At the agency’s prompting, Save A Lot stores also recalled cinnamon from the Marcum brand, which contained about three parts per million of lead. Neither company responded to requests for comment.
The F.D.A. said that consumers should dispose of those products and that its testing was continuing.
Consumer Reports found far lower levels of lead in cinnamon in other powders, including from some brands it said were safe to use: Whole Foods 365, McCormick, Penzeys and Morton & Bassett. Cinnamon mainly grows in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, the report said, and then is shipped around the world, including to the United States.
Food safety experts say lead could enter cinnamon when its trees grew in contaminated soil or when the spice was processed with aging machinery. In the case of the cinnamon applesauce recall in 2023, the F.D.A. has said it suspected that the cinnamon had been intentionally adulterated with lead chromate, a powder used to stretch the valuable commodity and increase profits.
In August of last year, local health departments alerted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to lead poisoning in children at levels far higher than those found in the water in Flint, Mich., years earlier.
The agency then identified more than 500 people, mostly toddlers, infants and children, who had elevated blood-lead levels and were believed or confirmed to have consumed cinnamon applesauce in pouches. The pouches, by a company called WanaBana, were sold at Dollar Tree stores and under private labels at Weis and Schnucks grocery stores.
The F.D.A. has said that the cinnamon in the applesauce had lead levels ranging from about 2,000 to 5,000 parts per million and that the pouches also contained chromium, another toxic metal.
A New York Times review of the matter found that the applesauce pouches had sailed through a food safety system that was meant to keep tainted food out of the hands of consumers. It also found the agency inspections were being done at a fraction of the level outlined in the law, with officials visiting about 1 percent of overseas food establishments last year.
Last month, the F.D.A. sent a warning letter to Austrofood, the U.S.-regulated supplier of the cinnamon applesauce, which is based in Ecuador. Warning letters can be a final penalty, if a company satisfies agency concerns after receiving one, or may lead to additional enforcement like fines or import bans.
In the letter, the F.D.A. said that lead powder could be intentionally added to spices for economic gain, and that Austrofood should have considered the possibility as part of its food-safety plan and tested the cinnamon it used in the applesauce, which had been provided by another supplier.
Christina Jewett covers the Food and Drug Administration, which means keeping a close eye on drugs, medical devices, food safety and tobacco policy. More about Christina Jewett
Sept. 12, 2024, 1:06 p.m. ET
One dozen of 36 cinnamon products tested by a consumer group contained elevated levels of lead, according to a study released on Thursday that reinforced concerns about metals in foods after tainted cinnamon applesauce poisoned dozens of children last year.
The study, by Consumer Reports, documented levels that were far lower than the amounts discovered last year.
The Consumer Reports team tested the spice and found high levels in lead in 12 items sold at discount stores and ethnic markets, with lead levels reaching 3.5 parts per million. New York, the only state with tough lead standards in spices, recalls spices — among them curry powder, chili powder, cumin and five-spice powder — with more than one part per million of lead. Consumer Reports advised that people throw out items with that amount.
Badia, one common brand, sold cinnamon with one part per million of lead, according to the report. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
While the levels in the cinnamon applesauce recalled last year were “astronomical,” those in the new report were still 1,000 times as high as the levels that concern lead-exposure experts who focus on children’s health, said Tomás R. Guilarte, a neuroscience and environmental health professor at Florida International University.
“These are extremely high levels of lead,” he said. “Clearly they shouldn’t be used.”
Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration urged a series of recalls of cinnamon products. The discoveries provided the impetus for consumer advocacy groups to generate greater public awareness of the dangers of lead and other metals, and for the agency to push Congress for tough limits on those heavy metals in food.
An agency spokeswoman said the F.D.A. had no authority to require companies to test final products for heavy metals, including foods consumed by babies and toddlers, who are particularly sensitive tothe effects of lead. Their intestines absorb more lead, and their blood-brain barrier is still developing, Dr. Guilarte said.
What to Know about Lead Exposure in Children
The agency said it was asking Congress for the power to require food companies to do such testing and to review company records remotely whenever necessary.
“There has to be some level of enforcement and testing,” Dr. Guilarte said.
Earlier this year, the F.D.A. conducted tests and pressed for recalls of several cinnamon powders, including one by Supreme Tradition sold at Dollar Tree stores, which contained two to three parts per million of lead. At the agency’s prompting, Save A Lot stores also recalled cinnamon from the Marcum brand, which contained about three parts per million of lead. Neither company responded to requests for comment.
The F.D.A. said that consumers should dispose of those products and that its testing was continuing.
Consumer Reports found far lower levels of lead in cinnamon in other powders, including from some brands it said were safe to use: Whole Foods 365, McCormick, Penzeys and Morton & Bassett. Cinnamon mainly grows in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, the report said, and then is shipped around the world, including to the United States.
Food safety experts say lead could enter cinnamon when its trees grew in contaminated soil or when the spice was processed with aging machinery. In the case of the cinnamon applesauce recall in 2023, the F.D.A. has said it suspected that the cinnamon had been intentionally adulterated with lead chromate, a powder used to stretch the valuable commodity and increase profits.
In August of last year, local health departments alerted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to lead poisoning in children at levels far higher than those found in the water in Flint, Mich., years earlier.
The agency then identified more than 500 people, mostly toddlers, infants and children, who had elevated blood-lead levels and were believed or confirmed to have consumed cinnamon applesauce in pouches. The pouches, by a company called WanaBana, were sold at Dollar Tree stores and under private labels at Weis and Schnucks grocery stores.
The F.D.A. has said that the cinnamon in the applesauce had lead levels ranging from about 2,000 to 5,000 parts per million and that the pouches also contained chromium, another toxic metal.
A New York Times review of the matter found that the applesauce pouches had sailed through a food safety system that was meant to keep tainted food out of the hands of consumers. It also found the agency inspections were being done at a fraction of the level outlined in the law, with officials visiting about 1 percent of overseas food establishments last year.
Last month, the F.D.A. sent a warning letter to Austrofood, the U.S.-regulated supplier of the cinnamon applesauce, which is based in Ecuador. Warning letters can be a final penalty, if a company satisfies agency concerns after receiving one, or may lead to additional enforcement like fines or import bans.
In the letter, the F.D.A. said that lead powder could be intentionally added to spices for economic gain, and that Austrofood should have considered the possibility as part of its food-safety plan and tested the cinnamon it used in the applesauce, which had been provided by another supplier.
Christina Jewett covers the Food and Drug Administration, which means keeping a close eye on drugs, medical devices, food safety and tobacco policy. More about Christina Jewett