I wonder if my Icelandic chocolate is safe....

[alfreda89]

They didn't rate Mexican chocolate, either. Sigh. This is a depressing development. Lead and cadmium levels in chocolate are too high. Including so-called good brands.

http://www.asyousow.org/our-work/environmental-health/toxic-enforcement/lead-and-cadmium-in-food/

Comments

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Schadenfreude time. The "crap" stuff is fine. Most of the shmancy organic stuff isn't.

Guess I'll drown my sorrows in a Reese's cup.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Surely there is come cheap gluten free chocolate....

[fugue78.livejournal.com]

I saw this article when it made the rounds, but I'm not quite convinced it's this simple. For example, two of the Ghirardelli varieties tested are very (very!) similar, but one tested fine while the other didn't.

It's unlikely the company is using different chocolate sources for these two bars - it sounded like the biggest difference is concentration, and the higher-cacao one is the one that tested fine - so there's something else going on. Maybe most likely is that the cacao came from different lots or batches, even if it's from the same vendor. Or, they could have been manufactured at different facilities. Or, who knows, there could have been sample contamination by the testing organization.

But what this really suggests to me is that there's not enough information. It could very well be that a second follow-up test would get different results...either the OK bar would have higher detectable heavy metals, or the not-OK bar was a fluke. And THAT suggests that we can't really take these results and extrapolate the amount of lead or cadmium we're ingesting over the long haul.

Personally, I think I'm going to risk it. :-)

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering but I eat small amounts of chocolate. Might get a heavy metals test eventually. In the meantime....

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

To distract you from chocolate - there is a wonderful new Innkeeper chapter up. (no heavy metals -only heavy vampires!)

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Very heavy vampires, thank you! This is a current favorite of mine. I had some problems with the new Avon series.