Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead

consumerreports.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 134 posts

Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead

#11

Post by Eelongate »

dsizzle wrote: post #8
jobe_br wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty easy to grow your own, from seed even, but most plant nurseries will have these in their herb section.

It's not clear where the heavy metals are coming from. One possibility mentioned in the article is the soil itself. I wonder if even potting soil is tested for heavy metals? If heavy metals get through whatever food testing is done by the FDA, McCormick, etc., I don't have great confidence that soil testing is any better. That said, I would think growing your own is safer.

> If heavy metals get through whatever food testing is done by the FDA

About that...

> In addition, the limited testing the FDA has done on spices has been focused on harmful bacteria, such as salmonella, not heavy metals, Ronholm says.

Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead

#12

Post by dsizzle »

Eelongate wrote: post #11
dsizzle wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not clear where the heavy metals are coming from. One possibility mentioned in the article is the soil itself. I wonder if even potting soil is tested for heavy metals? If heavy metals get through whatever food testing is done by the FDA, McCormick, etc., I don't have great confidence that soil testing is any better. That said, I would think growing your own is safer.

> If heavy metals get through whatever food testing is done by the FDA About that... > In addition, the limited testing the FDA has done on spices has been focused on harmful bacteria, such as salmonella, not heavy metals, Ronholm says.

Right, there you go. (Although it doesn't say it completely ignores it either, just that it's not a focus.)

Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead

#13

Post by _abox »

> In 31 products, levels of lead were so high that they exceeded the maximum amount anyone should have in a day, according to CR’s experts.

Uhh there is no amount of lead anyone should have in a day. It's cumulative and harmful and we don't need it for anything.

> Think twice about bringing back herbs and spices from travel abroad. Heavy metal content can be much higher in those products, according to other research. U.S. companies may buy the highest-quality herbs and spices to import, Ronholm says, which could leave lower-quality versions to be sold in the country of origin.

Depends from where of course. I'm pretty sure the EU has stricter food safety regulations than the US. Though enforcement varies by country.

Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead

#14

Post by dgut »

Eelongate wrote: post #9
smegger001 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean you expect the government to fund themselves enough to actually do there job?

How much did CR spend to buy these spices? A few hundred dollars? A thousand at most? I don't know how much the tests themselves cost to run, but I can find lead test kits on Amazon for under $20. The biggest cost would doubtlessly be manpower so.. put some interns on the job? But yes, I expect the FDA's lame excuse will be "Gee wiz we wish we could do our jobs but we need another billion dollars for what you're sugg…

With * government.

Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead

#15

Post by dsizzle »

NikolaeVarius wrote: post #10
dsizzle wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not clear where the heavy metals are coming from. One possibility mentioned in the article is the soil itself. I wonder if even potting soil is tested for heavy metals? If heavy metals get through whatever food testing is done by the FDA, McCormick, etc., I don't have great confidence that soil testing is any better. That said, I would think growing your own is safer.

You assume the soil you have is "safe"

Just did a little searching and came across this https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-nov-07-hm-reali...

That person did some lab testing and found high levels of lead in their backyard-grown chard.

Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead

#16

Post by malwarebytess »

Eelongate wrote: post #3

> CONSUMER REPORTS tested 126 herbs and spices from 38 brands for arsenic, cadmium, and lead. (We did not test spices that tend to be used in baking, such as cinnamon and nutmeg.) We tested two or three samples from different lots of each product. This testing is frustratingly sparse, couldn't they find garlic powder in Trader Joe's? They're missing many brands for many of these spices. And I don't think you can bake…

>What am I supposed to do?

Nothing, probably. Heavy metals come from natural sources in the ground as well as from the air which then settles into the topsoil. They also come from decades old insecticides/pesticides or old infrastructure left to rot on farms.

Cadmium and arsenic in particular are among the most abundant substances on the Earth. Every bit of food you eat likely has them both.

If you are worried and want to reduce exposure, probably the best you can do is buy local instead of imports. Know the land your food comes from and its history.

Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead

#17

Post by christophilus »

throwaway984393 wrote: post #5
postpawl wrote: post #2

All the thymes and oreganos? Wow

The good news is both of them are easy to grow indoors or outdoors, and they're perennial. Perennial herbs include rosemary, lavender, marjoram, tarragon, sage, mint, parsely, lemon balm, chives, sorrel, yarrow, chicory, savory, bay laurel, lovage, hyssop, anise, chamomile, bergamot, alfalfa, clover... the list goes on. You can use them fresh, or make your own dried herbs. On top of that, variants of thyme work as a…

Do you have a recommended place to get those? Also, I’ve got clay soil here, and thyme has never done well for me. I’d love to replace swaths of my lawn with it, as I really like it’s appearance and fragrance, so any link to those varieties would be much appreciated.

Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead

#18

Post by djbusby »

Eelongate wrote: post #9
smegger001 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean you expect the government to fund themselves enough to actually do there job?

How much did CR spend to buy these spices? A few hundred dollars? A thousand at most? I don't know how much the tests themselves cost to run, but I can find lead test kits on Amazon for under $20. The biggest cost would doubtlessly be manpower so.. put some interns on the job? But yes, I expect the FDA's lame excuse will be "Gee wiz we wish we could do our jobs but we need another billion dollars for what you're sugg…

Proper metals testing costs more than that. It's done for cannabis and many of those labs have their pricing online. Even w/o the "ganja gouge" pricing it is not $20 - but it's not $200 either - so, cheap for big companies/government

Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead

#19

Post by gruez »

malwarebytess wrote: post #16
Eelongate wrote: post #3

> CONSUMER REPORTS tested 126 herbs and spices from 38 brands for arsenic, cadmium, and lead. (We did not test spices that tend to be used in baking, such as cinnamon and nutmeg.) We tested two or three samples from different lots of each product. This testing is frustratingly sparse, couldn't they find garlic powder in Trader Joe's? They're missing many brands for many of these spices. And I don't think you can bake…

>What am I supposed to do? Nothing, probably. Heavy metals come from natural sources in the ground as well as from the air which then settles into the topsoil. They also come from decades old insecticides/pesticides or old infrastructure left to rot on farms. Cadmium and arsenic in particular are among the most abundant substances on the Earth. Every bit of food you eat likely has them both. If you are worried and wa…

>If you are worried and want to reduce exposure, probably the best you can do is buy local instead of imports. Know the land your food comes from and its history.

from the article:

>Also troubling: There was no single predictor of which products contained higher levels of heavy metals—for example, brand name didn’t matter, and neither did “organic” or “packed in USA” claims.

I'm also not sure how feasible it is to "Know the land your food comes from and its history". What are you supposed to do, go to the farmers market for all your herbs, interview the farmers, and then somehow determine heavy metal concentrations from that?

Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead

#20

Post by the-pigeon »

Aardwolf wrote: post #7
jobe_br wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty easy to grow your own, from seed even, but most plant nurseries will have these in their herb section.

Any risk of getting those elements in them if you grow them yourself, through the soil, water, fertilizer, products or the seeds?

Absolutely.

To be really certain you'd have to test your soil.

I don't think you could test seeds without destroying them. But if your soil was clean then you could grow a plant from potentially contaminated seeds and that plants seeds would be far less contaminated.

Post reply on HN