What To Know About Lead In Cinnamon—As Another Brand Recalled

Topline

The Food and Drug Administration has issued a recall for cinnamon powder made by the IHA Beverage company over concerns about elevated lead levels, the continuation of a problem that saw a dozen other brands recalled earlier this year and more than 50 kids sickened in 2023 by contaminated cinnamon applesauce pouches.

Key Facts

Four-ounce packages of Super brand cinnamon powder sold mostly in California retail stores and a few others across the U.S. were recalled this week after routine sampling found the product contained elevated levels of lead.

No illnesses have been reported from consuming the product, and the voluntary recall comes after the FDA issued an updated public health alert over the unsafe lead levels this summer.

The recall is the latest in a spate of similar incidents that have impacted cinnamon products across the country this year from brands like Supreme Tradition, La Fiesta and El Chilar.

People with short term exposure to low levels of lead may never display symptoms beyond increased blood lead levels, the FSA says, but acute exposure to higher levels of lead or chronic exposure is associated with kidney dysfunction, hypertension and neurocognitive effects in adults.

In children, exposure to heavy metals has been linked to lower IQ scores, intellectual disabilities, behavioral disorders, respiratory problems, cancer and cardiovascular diseases, and pregnant people can experience miscarriage, stillbirth or birth defects in their children.

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Key Background

Elevated levels of lead in cinnamon became a hot-button issue last year, when cinnamon-flavored applesauce pouches marketed to children were found to have “extremely high” concentrations of lead. Pouches manufactured by Austrofood SAS used cinnamon with lead levels of between 2,270 parts per million and 5,110 ppm as an ingredient. Levels of lead in specific foods allowed by the FDA varies, but what is generally considered to be safe includes 10 parts per billion for fruits and vegetables and 20 ppb for dry cereals. The contaminated pouches were sold at Amazon, Dollar Tree, Sam’s Club and other nationwide retailers, and more than 50 cases of adverse events in kids between 1 and 4 years old were reported in the United States. The FDA said the Super ground cinnamon recalled this week contains “significantly lower” levels of lead than those found in Austrofood applesauce.

How Does Lead Get Into Cinnamon?

There are several steps in the growth and manufacturing processes that can cause cinnamon to become tainted with lead. Cinnamon trees can absorb lead from the soil or water through their roots or from the air during the growing process. Suppliers may put lead-containing additives in cinnamon in order to increase its weight, one Harvard adjunct professor said. And lead-containing equipment used in the grinding process can contaminate the final product.

Tangent

American children born in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s experienced mass lead exposure due to the widespread use of leaded gasoline, airborne lead from car exhaust and lead-based paint in homes. Scientists have found 90% of children born in the United States between 1950 and 1981 had blood-lead levels higher than the current CDC threshold, and early childhood exposure to lead resulted in a 2.6-point drop in IQ. In addition, baby boomers now entering old age may soon begin experiencing the adverse risks of adult neurodegenerative disease, particularly dementia, due to their high levels of childhood exposures, according to a 2019 article from Duke University. Nationwide lead-level surveillance first began in 1976 and the average American’s blood-lead level was three times higher than the current level at which clinical attention is recommended, the article said, and even higher in people living in urban areas, beside busy roads or near lead-emitting industries. Today, lead exposure has dropped drastically (average blood lead levels have fallen more than 90%) largely due to the phase-out of leaded gasoline, but researchers with Columbia University warn low-level lead poisoning is still pervasive around the world.

Big Number

765 million. That’s the annual loss in IQ points around the world in children who have been exposed to lead, according to a paper by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.