More bad news for chocoholics like me or junk journalism! Not only is the cocoa harvest this year not very good due to weather and other factors!
This issue is apparently not new since I blogged here in October 2023 about Hershey's issues with heavy metals in their chocolate products.
I am afraid, this is a case of junk journalism! The study actually confirms that the heavy metal content is probably harmless.
What the study suggests is to consume chocolate modestly to avoid any potential negative effects from heavy metals.
I am surprised that this study used only "72 consumer cocoa-containing products" purchased between 2014-2022. This is an extraordinary and extremely small sample!
Furthermore, 70 out of the 72 sample chocolates only contained lead below FDA limits.
"Dark chocolate and similar cocoa products were found to be contaminated with lead and cadmium, per a new study published in Frontiers in Nutrition—with the heavy metals found in both organic and conventionally made chocolate products. CNN"
From the abstract:
"Introduction:
Contamination of cocoa containing products, such as dark chocolate, with heavy metals including lead, cadmium and arsenic has been reported in the US. However, a formal exploration into the significance of this contamination, nor multi-year trends in the degree or scope remain unresolved.
Methods:
From 2014 to 2022, 72 consumer cocoa-containing products were purchased and analyzed for heavy metal contamination with lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and arsenic (As) in 4 distinct cohorts (2014, 2016, 2019, 2022). The thresholds used to assess heavy metal contamination were set to Prop 65 maximum allowable dose levels (MADLs) of 0.5 mcg/day, 4.1 mcg/day, 10 mcg/day for Pb, Cd, and As, respectively.
Results and discussion:
Our analysis reports that 43, 35, and 0% of the products tested exceed Prop 65 MADLs for heavy metal concentrations, respectively, of Pb, Cd, and As, while 97.2% (70 of 72) fall below US FDA IRL limits established for Pb. Median concentrations of each metal tested were lower than even the conservative Prop 65 MADLs, indicating a potentially large effect of product outliers. This indicates that heavy metal contamination—in more than half of products tested—may not pose any appreciable risk for the average person when consumed as a single serving; however, consuming some of the products tested, or more than one serving per day in combination with non-cocoa derived sources heavy metals, may add up to exposure that would exceed the Prop 65 MADLs. Notably, “organic” products were significantly more likely to demonstrate higher levels of both Cd and Pb."
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