A California-based health watchdog group, As You Sow, has warned us that many known chocolate treats include unsafe amounts of heavy metals, such as cadmium and lead.
You will see their results below.
The group declared that chronic cadmium exposure causes liver, bone, and kidney damage, and some of the U.S. top brands contain up to seven times as the daily limit, permitted in California.
An updated survey of As You Sow showed that some chocolates have nine times the daily lead amount regarded as safe to prevent reproductive harm by the state.
Moreover, exposure to lead can even cause neurological damage and can lower IQ. When it comes to children, there’s no safe level of this metal (lead).
The group obtained 50 Healthline samples, and after analyzing them in an independent laboratory, they saw half of them had cadmium and lead levels in their content which are far beyond the limits of California. These limits are stricter than the federal guidelines.
Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow, says they believed companies made tests on their products prior to putting them on the market, but as it turned out, they didn’t.
The group won’t reveal the exact quantities of heavy metals they discovered in the analyzed samples, since their hope is to pinpoint the lead and cadmium sources directly to the manufacturers.
The president of As You Know, Danielle Fugere, reported for CNN that their goal is mutual collaboration with the chocolate manufacturers, in order to find methods to avoid their products contain these metals.
The chocolate brands which use the analyzed cocoa that proved to have high amounts of heavy metals, are well-known names familiar to cocoa lovers.
A great number of them are sold in almost every U.S. grocery store, including Chocolove, Lake Champlain Chocolates, Hershey’s, Theo Chocolate, Earth Circle Foods, Ghirardelli, Sees Candies, Whole Foods, Dove, Godiva, Cadbury, Trader Joe’s, and Mars.
17 of the analyzed chocolates proved to include lead, including Royal Dark Chocolate Bar and Cadbury’s Royal Dark Mini Eggs, Hershey’s Special Dark, Godiva’s 72% and 50% cacao dark chocolate.
7 of the tested chocolates were found to contain cadmium, including Dove’s Dark Chocolate and Ghirardelli’s Intense Dark Twilight Delight.
Nevertheless, the chocolate manufacturers weren’t upset by the shocking results. Just 2 of them wanted to solve the problem by asking the group to work together. All others claimed their products are perfectly safe and that the heavy metals appear from naturally occurring sources.
These are the responses from some chocolate manufacturers:
Chocolove – This company states that the amounts and types of food products’ elements can appear from food processing, the natural growing of the plant, or from the soil.
Natural occurring components of the plant and soil being in foods, and the contamination caused by improper food contact surfaces giving elements to food are completely different.
Earth Circle Foods – This chocolate manufacturer dispute As You Sow claims. They claim to have proper testing program and that their product is safe to eat.
Hershey Company – Their response is that people have been consuming cocoa and chocolate for centuries. This company also claims that their products are safe, and that they follow all regulations posed by the government.
Lake Champlain Chocolates – They state that their factory doesn’t involve any process that can cause cadmium or lead levels in chocolate, and point the Proposition 65 according to which the requirements for labeling doesn’t include low amounts of substances in food which are naturally occurring.
Theo Chocolate – This company is fully confident in their products in terms of their safety and quality, as they claim to take vigorous measures to ensure their products’ safety.
See’s Candies – They state that their company complies with all federal and state guidelines.
According to the National Confectioners Association, certain minerals such as lead and calcium are naturally occurring in many foods including potatoes, seafood, leafy vegetables, grains, peanuts, and sometimes cocoa beans. They say that foods based on cocoa are consumed in small amounts and therefore are not important source of those minerals in the diet.
Moreover, The Food and Drug Administration added that people have consumed chocolate and cocoa for centuries, and not even a single incident appeared as a result of the discussed naturally occurring minerals.
Nevertheless, one study conducted in 2005 discovered that chocolate was one of the foods with highest levels of lead. Regardless of the National Confectioners Association’s claim that people consume chocolate in small amounts, the average American has 9.5 pound chocolate intake annually.
However, don’t let this stop you from consuming chocolate, as it possesses various health benefits, particularly dark chocolate.
Via Natural Society | HNGN | Newser | ECY