Protect Your Health With Lab Tested Cinnamon

Learn About Trace Elements and Our Testing Process

All spices and herbs grown in nature contain trace levels of elements such as lead, which are present in all soils because they are found in the Earth’s crust. The concentrations of metals in spices, like other agricultural food products, naturally vary due to where and how the spices are grown, climate and soil conditions, as well as harvesting and processing methods.

While the FDA does not have limits for lead levels in spices, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization has a proposed international safety standard of 2.5 parts per million (ppm) of lead for bark spices like cinnamon. The European Union limits lead to 2 ppm.

We have set our lead tolerance level for our Cassia Cinnamon at .1 ppm and our Ceylon Cinnamon at 1 ppm. The reason for the difference is that historically, we have found that Ceylon cinnamon has higher lead content than Cassia.

For reference: Test results for our Cassia Cinnamon usually come in below .05 ppm and never above .1 ppm. Test results for our Ceylon Cinnamon usually come in below .7 ppm.

Note: 1 ppm = 1 mg/kg = 1,000 ppb (parts per billion)

In the past, we have randomly and routinely tested our cinnamon for heavy metals. In light of the recent developments, we are now testing every batch of cinnamon that we sell. Rest assured that we will never sell any product that puts our customers’ health at risk. We take this very seriously. We perform the same tests on all of our other spices as well.

We use Genista Bioscience, AGQ Labs, and Eurofins to perform our heavy metal testing. These are 3rd party, independent, accredited labs. We want to be 100% transparent on this issue. We will provide the test results on our products- so that you can decide for yourself.

Below is our maximum limit on other heavy metals:

Arsenic: < 0.1 ppm
Cadmium: < 0.3 ppm
Mercury: < 0.07 ppm

We will never sell a product that we would not give to our children.