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> CONSUMER REPORTS tested 126 herbs and spices from 38 brands for arsenic, cadmium, and lead. (We did not test spices that tend to be used in baking, such as ci

> CONSUMER REPORTS tested 126 herbs and spices from 38 brands for arsenic, cadmium, and lead. (We did not test spices that tend to be used in baking, such as cinnamon and nutmeg.) We tested two or three samples from different lots of each product. This testing is frustratingly sparse, couldn't they find garlic powder in Trader Joe's? They're missing many brands for many of these spices. And I don't think you can bake heavy metals out of food, so why did they omit cinnamon? What is a concerned consumer like myself supposed to do now? Eat food without spices? Buy test kits and test spices myself? I guess I could write a letter to my congresspeople to tell the FDA to do their goddamn jobs, but I don't expect that to work.

oasisbob 5y ago
I find it frustrating that they didn't test many foreign brands, but recommend against import nonetheless. Laxmi Turmeric is the one Indian (for import) spice brand I recognize on the list. Testing Devi, and the other common import brands, as well as true desi brands would have been interesting. "Curry powder" is a weird one to test. Might as well compare Italian blends as well.
smegger001 5y ago
You mean you expect the government to fund themselves enough to actually do there job?
- Eelongate 5y ago
  How much did CR spend to buy these spices? A few hundred dollars? A thousand at most? I don't know how much the tests themselves cost to run, but I can find lead test kits on Amazon for under $20. The biggest cost would doubtlessly be manpower so.. put some interns on the job? But yes, I expect the FDA's lame excuse will be "Gee wiz we wish we could do our jobs but we need another billion dollars for what you're suggesting." Such is the way with the American government.
  - dgut 5y ago
    With * government.
  - djbusby 5y ago
    Proper metals testing costs more than that. It's done for cannabis and many of those labs have their pricing online. Even w/o the "ganja gouge" pricing it is not $20 - but it's not $200 either - so, cheap for big companies/government
  - fer 5y ago
    Amazon test kits have nowhere the sensitivity to reach meaningful detection. In my country the legal limit for water is 10µg/L, and these tests start detecting at 10-20 mg/L.
malwarebytess 5y ago
>What am I supposed to do? Nothing, probably. Heavy metals come from natural sources in the ground as well as from the air which then settles into the topsoil. They also come from decades old insecticides/pesticides or old infrastructure left to rot on farms. Cadmium and arsenic in particular are among the most abundant substances on the Earth. Every bit of food you eat likely has them both. If you are worried and want to reduce exposure, probably the best you can do is buy local instead of imports. Know the land your food comes from and its history.
- gruez 5y ago
  >If you are worried and want to reduce exposure, probably the best you can do is buy local instead of imports. Know the land your food comes from and its history. from the article: >Also troubling: There was no single predictor of which products contained higher levels of heavy metals—for example, brand name didn’t matter, and neither did “organic” or “packed in USA” claims. I'm also not sure how feasible it is to "Know the land your food comes from and its history". What are you supposed to do, go to the farmers market for all your herbs, interview the farmers, and then somehow determine heavy metal concentrations from that?
  - malwarebytess 5y ago
    It's feasible. Perhaps not for everyone. If you're serious about this (and I don't think you ought to be) the only way you're going to control it is by making sure the land your food comes from is accountable to you. You can certainly find out whether the agricultural land your food is grown on was once something else. You can certainly reasonably guess if there may be high concentrations of pollutants deposited in the soil by examining the history of the land. Maybe the land being used was once near heavy industry, maybe it was a site that once heavily used insecticides, etc. For example, perhaps the farmland you're looking at is adjacent to an interstate. Leaded gas used for decades will have polluted the topsoil to a greater extent here than on other, more remote, land. You could choose not to buy produce from the interstate farm. This is easy enough to do. Sourcing is one of the most basic skills people ought to have. I don't think people ought to be worried and go out of their way, to be honest. A great way to do this at home is to grow your own produce in raised garden beds with good, clean, fresh, topsoil.
OneLeggedCat 5y ago
> This testing is frustratingly sparse A very common problem with Consumer Reports. Very. They also never make that shitty data's origins easily available for critique. I have subscribed to them for over twenty years. This has always been a problem with them. Good intentions (that's my belief), but poor statistical execution and evidence.
- Natsu 5y ago
  Looking at the reports, it seems more like the problem is with certain spices especially basil, ginger, oregano, and thyme more than any particular brand. Some of those seem to be all red or very close to it. That said, there are a few spices where some brands are just terrible compared to all others. And I do see that there are a few common brands like "Great Value" that seem rather below average, failing where many others succeeded, which may be worth avoiding. But yeah, I wish they had more consistent tables of these spices.
code_duck 5y ago
You can grow your own (assuming you can find clean soil…). I harvested enough oregano this year to last months.
- 01100011 5y ago
  Yeah but get your soil tested. Lead and arsenic are natural and there's nothing saying they aren't in your soil. Pollution from old lead paint or nearby roads is real.
  - code_duck 5y ago
    I only plant food into containers with clean soil that I purchased. I don’t trust whatever is in my yard either.

oasisbob 5y ago

I find it frustrating that they didn't test many foreign brands, but recommend against import nonetheless. Laxmi Turmeric is the one Indian (for import) spice brand I recognize on the list. Testing Devi, and the other common import brands, as well as true desi brands would have been interesting. "Curry powder" is a weird one to test. Might as well compare Italian blends as well.

smegger001 5y ago

You mean you expect the government to fund themselves enough to actually do there job?

Eelongate 5y ago
How much did CR spend to buy these spices? A few hundred dollars? A thousand at most? I don't know how much the tests themselves cost to run, but I can find lead test kits on Amazon for under $20. The biggest cost would doubtlessly be manpower so.. put some interns on the job? But yes, I expect the FDA's lame excuse will be "Gee wiz we wish we could do our jobs but we need another billion dollars for what you're suggesting." Such is the way with the American government.
- dgut 5y ago
  With * government.
- djbusby 5y ago
  Proper metals testing costs more than that. It's done for cannabis and many of those labs have their pricing online. Even w/o the "ganja gouge" pricing it is not $20 - but it's not $200 either - so, cheap for big companies/government
- fer 5y ago
  Amazon test kits have nowhere the sensitivity to reach meaningful detection. In my country the legal limit for water is 10µg/L, and these tests start detecting at 10-20 mg/L.

malwarebytess 5y ago

>What am I supposed to do? Nothing, probably. Heavy metals come from natural sources in the ground as well as from the air which then settles into the topsoil. They also come from decades old insecticides/pesticides or old infrastructure left to rot on farms. Cadmium and arsenic in particular are among the most abundant substances on the Earth. Every bit of food you eat likely has them both. If you are worried and want to reduce exposure, probably the best you can do is buy local instead of imports. Know the land your food comes from and its history.

gruez 5y ago
>If you are worried and want to reduce exposure, probably the best you can do is buy local instead of imports. Know the land your food comes from and its history. from the article: >Also troubling: There was no single predictor of which products contained higher levels of heavy metals—for example, brand name didn’t matter, and neither did “organic” or “packed in USA” claims. I'm also not sure how feasible it is to "Know the land your food comes from and its history". What are you supposed to do, go to the farmers market for all your herbs, interview the farmers, and then somehow determine heavy metal concentrations from that?
- malwarebytess 5y ago
  It's feasible. Perhaps not for everyone. If you're serious about this (and I don't think you ought to be) the only way you're going to control it is by making sure the land your food comes from is accountable to you. You can certainly find out whether the agricultural land your food is grown on was once something else. You can certainly reasonably guess if there may be high concentrations of pollutants deposited in the soil by examining the history of the land. Maybe the land being used was once near heavy industry, maybe it was a site that once heavily used insecticides, etc. For example, perhaps the farmland you're looking at is adjacent to an interstate. Leaded gas used for decades will have polluted the topsoil to a greater extent here than on other, more remote, land. You could choose not to buy produce from the interstate farm. This is easy enough to do. Sourcing is one of the most basic skills people ought to have. I don't think people ought to be worried and go out of their way, to be honest. A great way to do this at home is to grow your own produce in raised garden beds with good, clean, fresh, topsoil.

OneLeggedCat 5y ago

> This testing is frustratingly sparse A very common problem with Consumer Reports. Very. They also never make that shitty data's origins easily available for critique. I have subscribed to them for over twenty years. This has always been a problem with them. Good intentions (that's my belief), but poor statistical execution and evidence.

Natsu 5y ago
Looking at the reports, it seems more like the problem is with certain spices especially basil, ginger, oregano, and thyme more than any particular brand. Some of those seem to be all red or very close to it. That said, there are a few spices where some brands are just terrible compared to all others. And I do see that there are a few common brands like "Great Value" that seem rather below average, failing where many others succeeded, which may be worth avoiding. But yeah, I wish they had more consistent tables of these spices.

code_duck 5y ago

You can grow your own (assuming you can find clean soil…). I harvested enough oregano this year to last months.

01100011 5y ago
Yeah but get your soil tested. Lead and arsenic are natural and there's nothing saying they aren't in your soil. Pollution from old lead paint or nearby roads is real.
- code_duck 5y ago
  I only plant food into containers with clean soil that I purchased. I don’t trust whatever is in my yard either.