Worried About Lead in Cinnamon? Consumer Reports Can Help

Are you worried about lead in cinnamon? Consumer Reports can help with information on the brands that are the most and least contaminated with this heavy metal. The issue came to the forefront last fall when hundreds of children were sickened with lead poisoning after eating recalled WanaBana apple cinnamon pouches.

Since then, the FDA has increased testing of cinnamon for lead contamination, and many recalls have been issued for unsafe products. The FDA warned consumers to avoid 17 products since their lead content, while still lower than that found in the apple puree pouches, were high enough to risk human health when consumed often. So which products are safer than others?

Dr. James Rogers, the director of food safety research and testing at Consumer Reports, said in a statement, “Just a quarter teaspoon of any of those products has more lead than you should consume in an entire day. If you have one of those products, we think you should throw it away.”

The cinnamon powders you should not consume, according to Consumer Reports, include Paras cinnamon powder, EGN cinnamon powder, Mimi’s Products ground cinnamon, Bowl & Basket ground cinnamon, Rani ground cinnamon, Zara Foods cinnamon powder, Three Rivers cinnamon stick powder, Yu Yee five spice powder, BaiLiFeng five spice powder, Spicy King five spice powder, Badia cinnamon powder, and Deep cinnamon powder.

The products they say are okay to use include Happy Belly ground cinnamon, Kirkland Signature organic Saigon cinnamon, Great Value ground cinnamon, Penzeys Ceylon cinnamon, Ziyad premium seven spice blend, Trader Joe’s organic ground cinnamon, The Spice Lab organic ground cinnamon, Good & Gather ground cinnamon, Morton & Bassett San Fransisco ground cinnamon, Penzey’s Vietnamese cinnamon, Swad garam masala, Penzey’s ground cinnamon, and others.

The best cinnamon brands to choose include Sadaf seven spice, 365 Whole Foods Market ground cinnamon, Loisa organic cinnamon, Morton & Bassett San Fransisco 100% organic ground cinnamon, Sadaf cinnamon powder, and 365 Whole Foods Market organic ground cinnamon. You can see pictures of the cinnamon products at the Consumer Reports web site.

The two companies with the highest lead levels, Paras and EGN, told Consumer Reports they would stop selling those products after the reports.

Lead gets into cinnamon because it is prevalent in the soil and ground water. Cinnamon trees grow for 10 years before the bark can be harvested, which means the plant has a long time to absorb the heavy metal. And lead in the bark gets concentrated during the drying process.

Nearly all cinnamon for sale in the U.S. is imported, most from Indonesia. those countries can have fewer regulations and enforcement about chemical contaminants in soil.

To protect your family, buy cinnamon with the lowest levels of lead. Mainstream brands seem to be the safest. And don’t rely on words like “organic,” which doesn’t mean anything in this issue. Cinnamon should not be taken as a health aid, except with the least contaminated cinnamon brands.