topic Re: Lead Found in Cinnamon in Kitchen

Lead Found in Cinnamon

Kachina624 — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 21:06:20 GMT

The brands mentioned were "off brands" with strange names. My old standby, Mccormick was not mentioned. Buy your cinnamon from a reliable source. Check the CDC for lists.

Re: Lead Found in Cinnamon

Shelbelle — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 21:17:12 GMT

I only use Ceylon Cinnamon, usually buy Frontier brand. Other cinnamon made from cassia bark contains coumarin which can be damaging to your health.

Re: Lead Found in Cinnamon

loriqvc — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 23:04:21 GMT

The full report on this topic can be found by Googling "Consumer Reports cinnamon" (no quotation marks needed). Here's a summary:

Stop using these brands
Badia cinnamon powder
BaiLiFeng five spice powder
Bowl & Basket ground cinnamon
Deep cinnamon Powder
EGN cinnamon powder
Mimi's Products ground cinnamon
Paras cinnamon powder
Rani Brand ground cinnamon
Spicy King five spices powder
Three Rivers cinnamon stick powder
Yu Yee Brand five spice powder
Zara Foods cinnamon powder

"If you have one of those products, we think you should throw it away," microbiologist James Rogers, director of food safety research and testing at Consumer Reports said of the 12 brands with the highest lead levels. "Even small amounts of lead pose a risk because, over time, it can accumulate in the body and remain there for years, seriously harming health," he added.

Brands that are OK to use
Abido Spices 7 mixes
Good & Gather ground cinnamon
Great Value ground cinnamon
Happy Belly ground cinnamon
Kirkland Signature organic Saigon cinnamon
McCormick cinnamon
Morton Bassett San Francisco ground cinnamon
Natural Plus Green five spices powder
Penzeys Ceylon cinnamon
Penzeys ground cinnamon
Penzeys Vietnamese Cinnamon
Shan garam masala powder
Simply Organic cinnamon
Swad garam masala powder
The Spice Lab organic ground cinnamon
Trader Joe's organic ground cinnamon
Wei-Chuan five spice powder
Ziyad Brand premium seven spice blend

Good options
Half a dozen of the products tested as low-risk and "demonstrate that it's possible to produce cinnamon with no lead or extremely low levels," said Rogers. The brands qualifying as good options are:

365 Whole Foods Market Ground Cinnamon
365 Whole Foods Market Organic Ground Cinnamon
Loisa Organic Cinnamon
Morton & Bassett San Francisco Organic Ground Cinnamon
Sadaf Cinnamon Powder
Sadaf Seven Spice Blend

Re: Lead Found in Cinnamon

Estellee — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 21:55:13 GMT

Thankfully I have McCormick they say is safe.

Re: Lead Found in Cinnamon

Nightowlz — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 22:01:20 GMT

My sister just sent me a text about the lead in cinnamon.

At least the 3 different ones from Penzey's are on your Ok list.

There's lead in the ground so it's in the food you eat. It's in the water we drink.

It's pretty bad there are no Regulatory limits set so they cannot tell them to recall it. It's the companies decision to recall or not & that doesn't always happen???

What about the cinnamon people take for diabetes? I read about a water soluble cinnamon called Cinnulin PF several years ago.

Re: Lead Found in Cinnamon

Bookplate — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 22:01:00 GMT

It was also recently identified in some dark chocolates. Which has not changed my eating habits one bit of course.

Re: Lead Found in Cinnamon

shoesnbags — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 22:09:28 GMT

@Kachina624

Yes! I subscribe to ConsumerLab and they have been talking about this for a couple of years now. In testing many brands of cinnamon they looked at lead and at coumarin, which @Shelbelle mentioned. Their report won't let me copy and paste because it's copyrighted, but the top three recommended are Whole Foods 365 ground cinnamon, McCormick Ground Cinnamon, and FGO Organic Ceylon Cinnamon Powder. After reading this I switched from the organic cinnamon I was using to McCormick.

Re: Lead Found in Cinnamon

Goodie2shoes — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 22:36:38 GMT

Thanks for this post and the brands because I'm a big Cinnamon user, I use alot of cinnamon in my walnut recipe and I eat a lot of Cinnamon Walnuts each day. Cinnamon helps with keeping blood sugars under control. Thankfully I only use McCormick brand.

Re: Lead Found in Cinnamon

Julie_23 — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 22:57:39 GMT

Thank you for posting about this and the various brands!

@shoesnbags : Did they happen to mention anything about the spice turmeric and its safety/brands?

Re: Lead Found in Cinnamon

shoesnbags — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 23:27:24 GMT

@Julie_23 wrote:

Thank you for posting about this and the various brands!

@shoesnbags : Did they happen to mention anything about the spice turmeric and its safety/brands?

@Julie_23 I'm cooking right now but will look it up later and let you know. I'm think they did an article on turmeric.

Re: Lead Found in Cinnamon

Julie_23 — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 23:56:46 GMT

@shoesnbags -- thanks so much and take your time. Have a great dinner!

Regarding the turmeric, I found one company called "American Turmeric Company" that has on their website "lead-free"..... but they are unfamilar to me. Whereas, ConsumerLabs is quite trustworthy.

Re: Lead Found in Cinnamon

Trailrun23 — Sat, 14 Sep 2024 00:49:04 GMT

'I have never even any of the brands listed to throw away.

Re: Lead Found in Cinnamon

on the bay — Sat, 14 Sep 2024 01:01:04 GMT

Thanks for posting about this @Kachina624.

Makes me wonder what happened to Mindy? who always posted aobut recalls.

Re: Lead Found in Cinnamon

shoesnbags — Sat, 14 Sep 2024 01:22:45 GMT

@Julie_23 wrote:

@shoesnbags -- thanks so much and take your time. Have a great dinner!

Regarding the turmeric, I found one company called "American Turmeric Company" that has on their website "lead-free"..... but they are unfamilar to me. Whereas, ConsumerLabs is quite trustworthy.

@Julie_23Consumer Lab tested both turmeric supplements and turmeric spice.

American Turmeric Company wasn't mentioned. They only found a high level of lead in Jamieson Curcumin Turmeric. It was mentioned that lead is not an issue in turmeric extracts vs. powders because the extraction process removes contaminants. They also said that turmeric from Bangladesh, India and Afghanistan has been recalled in past years due to high lead content. So stay away from those countries of origin.

They tested a bunch of turmeric supplements for "heavy metal contamination" but only three spices, and all three spices were approved. Great Value Organic (Walmart) had the least contamination. Of the other two, Frontier Co-Op had less than McCormick. But all three were "approved." Hope this helps. It was a really long report so there was a lot more info than what I mentioned.

Re: Lead Found in Cinnamon

Julie_23 — Sat, 14 Sep 2024 01:46:10 GMT

@shoesnbags -- Oh, this most definitely helps -- thank you!! I've learned so much, and the information you shared already will shape my purchases.

I truly appreciate your having looked into it. Thank you again!!

P.S.-- And thanks to @Kachina624 for starting this thread.

Re: Lead Found in Cinnamon

Kachina624 — Sat, 14 Sep 2024 02:29:51 GMT

@on the bay I often wonder about Mindy too. She was so active, then one day she was gone.