Consumer Reports recently published results from heavy metal tests they did early this year on a bunch of spices and herbs from a bunch of spice companies. All of ours got green all clear dots except for our Oregano that got a single red caution dot. A number of you inquired about this. After additional independent lab testing here is what we found.

Short answer. There isn’t actually a threat to your health or to your children’s health even from those spice companies that tested higher than us and had more spices and herbs get red dots.

It’s useful that Consumer Reports works to keep everyone honest, but ultimately they based their recommendations of caution on, what if people consumed a far-far larger amount of spices and herbs than people actually consume.

Longer Answer: Heavy metals are a naturally occurring part of our planet and naturally make up a very small part of our soil and of our atmosphere. Anything that grows in natural dirt or gets exposed to rainfall will contain trace amounts of heavy metals. Spices and herbs rely on dirt and rain, so like pretty much every plant they will have trace amounts.

There have been times in America’s history when processors have added artificial colorants to those spices like paprika and turmeric that fit the natural color category and sometimes those colorants contained heavy metals, mostly lead. Between the US Government and the Spice Trade we do a really good job of staying on top of adulterants.

Kids in America get tested for lead in their blood and case workers get dispatched when levels are high. These days the case workers mostly find it's that the child has newly moved to a home that has not had kids for a while and still has lead paint, blinds, etc. Every once in a while the case workers find that, for a family’s turmeric, they are getting “the good stuff” shipped directly from relatives back in their home country. So medical workers still need to be aware that heavy metal poisoning can be caused by spices, even though it is rare.

So yes, our spices and herbs are tested and they are safe. But in fairness, a big part of that safety comes down to the fact that spices and herbs make up well less than one percent of the food Americans consume. There are different categories of foods out there and they have different acceptable levels of heavy metals based in part on how much of the product people typically consume.

We got our caution dot from Consumer Reports on our Oregano because they put spices and herbs in the same category as children’s breakfast cereal. And indeed, if Penzeys Oregano was your child’s favorite breakfast cereal and they went through one of those phases where they would not eat anything other than big bowls of Penzeys Oregano morning, noon, and night they would end the day slightly over the recommended safe level for lead. In reality, the serving size for Oregano is 1/4 tsp. It really isn’t an issue.

That said, and me being me, I find something just a bit too weasel-like in saying because you are not eating cups of Oregano, but instead are only eating 1/4 tsps you can forget about it. Our spices and herbs are safe, and you really can forget about it, but we won’t. Everything else of ours Consumer Reports tested reached that all-you-can-eat safe standard. We will work to get the Oregano there, too, even if it is more of a matter of pride than safety. We will do even better.

And while you are thinking about heavy metal exposure, you know how those on the right want to say government regulation doesn’t work and creates needless hassles and inflation? In the past forty years childhood exposure to lead is down by 97% in America. 97%! Starting with the Environmental Protection Act so many well-crafted laws with bipartisan support have made that 97% difference possible. If we did it with lead we can do it with carbon. Democrats really are trying. We just need a few Republicans with courage to help.

Thanks for being our customers,

Bill
bill@penzeys.com