The Food and Drug Administration is telling consumers to throw away certain brands of cinnamon found to have elevated levels of lead and has urged companies to recall the products from store shelves.
The agency conducted tests across the country after at least 460 children fell ill last year from illnesses linked to apple pouches. These products were contaminated with very high levels of lead from cinnamon processed in Ecuador.
However, the latest FDA tests found much lower levels, 2 to 3 parts per million, in cinnamon. By contrast, the cinnamon from Ecuador that sickened children last year had 2,200 to 5,100 parts per million.
“Although we are concerned about these products in the safety alert, they do not present the same level of risk to human health as cinnamon in applesauce and applesauce products,” said Conrad Choiniere, an FDA food official. release on Wednesday.
Lead is a potent toxin that is particularly dangerous to young children and has been linked to learning and behavioral challenges as well as developmental delays. The agency said no illnesses were reported in connection with the latest batches of cinnamon, which were flagged for high levels of lead after testing 75 samples from retail stores.
The most recent batches of cinnamon and applesauce bags were both sold at Dollar Tree stores. The company has stated that it is committed to the safety of the products it sells. Brands that FDA has urged the companies to recall includes Supreme Tradition cinnamon, sold exclusively at Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores. Other cinnamon with elevated lead levels in recent testing included the La Fiesta brand sold at La Superior SuperMercados and the Marcum brand sold at Save A Lot.
People who have the products should dispose of them, the agency said.
The agency also said it had written to the manufacturers cinnamon encouraging them to ensure the safety of their products.
Brian Ronholm, director of food policy for Consumer Reports, which tests baby foods for heavy metals, said the agency’s review showed it recognizes the potential problem.
“It’s a positive development and reassuring for consumers,” he said. “It also highlights the need to create a system to prevent things like this from happening.”
Last year, bags of cinnamon apple sauce sold at Dollar Tree and under some private label grocers were linked to children with high blood lead levels. The FDA has said it believes the cinnamon was intentionally contaminated with lead chromate dust.
The problem has long been known in the spice industry. The powder is sometimes poured into yellow spices like turmeric or curry to make the color pop or to add weight to a commodity sold by the pound.
Made in Ecuador, leaded cinnamon is mixed into apple pouches that are widely consumed by infants and toddlers. The FDA eventually worked with the applesauce maker to recall three million bags and said it believes this eliminates the tainted cinnamon from the US food supply.
A Times investigation found that applesauce crossed multiple checkpoints in the food safety system. Cinnamon was not tested by the applesauce maker in Ecuador, FDA records showed, despite requirements for foreign food manufacturers to ensure their products are safe. U.S. importers tasked with inspecting foreign foods let the product slip onto store shelves.
The poisoning came as the FDA failed to meet goals set by a landmark food safety law to conduct 19,000 overseas inspections annually. Last year it completed 1,200 such reviews.
The applesauce was likely consumed by children in 44 states whose average blood lead level was six times the level found in the water crisis caused by lead pipes a decade ago in Flint, Mich.
Doctors specializing in the care of lead-exposed children have advised parents to ensure their children have diets rich in iron and calcium, which enter the body through the same pathways as lead. They also recommend that parents feed children a wide variety of foods so that they are not overexposed to a single type.