Dark chocolate and heavy metals

Cooking Discussions Cooking, Cookbooks, Ingredients
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Dark chocolate is one of my favorite sweet treats, so I’m distressed to learn that Consumer Reports found excessive amounts of lead and cadmium in testing popular brands of dark chocolate sold in the US.

Products from Trader Joe’s, Hershey’s, and Lindt were among those tested. The CR story is worth a read if you are a fellow fan of dark chocolate. Sigh.

https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/lead-and-cadmium-in-dark-chocolate-a8480295550/

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Yikes!

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:sob: :sob: :sob:
I can’t eat below 99% due to the sugar content
:sob: :sob: :sob:
So now I have to drastically reduce the frequency and the amount I eat
:sob: :sob: :sob:
Why is it that everything I like is either discontinued or not good for me (in large quantities)
:sob: :sob: :sob:

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Unfortunately, you’re gonna find those in a LOT of stuff that grows in soil… and in animals that eat it.

If we want to avoid all of it, we’ll need to feed our dinner party guests via IV. (c;

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Thanks for posting; I was completely unaware of this. I wish they’d link their data so we could see the ranges they got in their testing (assuming of course they tested more than just once per brand).

Too bad they didn’t test the Aldi branded (Moser-Roth) chocolates; those are what we mostly buy.

And of course I was surprised they didn’t test Cadbury for Cadmium.

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Agree. I’m going to be on the lookout for more data, as I’ll bet that CR’s testing is not the last we will hear about this.

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image

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Let’s be careful here.

CR did not find “excessive” amounts of anything.

What the CR tests found was that certain brands of chocolate contained levels of certain types of heavy metals (i.e., lead and cadmium) to exceed “California’s maximum allowable dose level” – which is neither a federal standard nor (more importantly) a legal standard vis-a-vis health risks.

Screenshot 2022-12-16 at 7.54.38 AM
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So if I don’t eat that chocolate in California, I’m good to go.

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As much as I admire Californias vigilance, its not uncommon for their limits to be set at a point that defies logic.

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I pass no comment on the CA standard.

Simply noting that the CA standard that CR uses is neither a legal one, nor a clinically proven safe level for heavy chemicals.

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