The "Try Not To Be Too Scared By This...BUT.... Story

It was an ordinary day.  Checking out a story on the "FOOD" page of my local Sunday News.  Story was titled "A DARK SIDE?"  It had a subhead that read just about as interesting... "Heavy metals found in 28 popular dark chocolate bars many turn to when looking for relatively healthy sweet treat." Story says that dark chocolate has a reputation as a relatively healthy treat, but research is now showing some popular bars might have potentially unsafe levels of heavy metals and has many questions as to how safe these treats really are.  Consumer Reports tested 28 popular dark chocolate bars from Seattle's Theo Chocolate to Trader Joe's; Hershey's to Ghirardelli; and even smaller brands such as Alter Ecco and Mast.  The study found cadmium and lead in every single bar!  You read that right!!!  It read...CADMIUM and LEAD!...In our candy bars!!!  Now that's scary.  Consumer Reports last month called on 28 chocolate makers to reduce levels of heavy metals in their candy bars by the middle of February.  So...have they done it yet?  Nearly 55,000 people signed the letter to the chocolate makers.  I, too, would have signed my name had I been asked.  Did you know that your dark chocolate had heavy metals in it?  Why must we have to worry about eating snacks?  Snacks which could kill us!  Seems that there are no Federal limits set on heavy metals in food except in California.  With no Federal limit set on heavy metals in foods, researchers used California's limitations on lead and cadmium to determine which chocolate posed the most risk.  California's daily maximum allowable dose levels set by Proposition 65, require businesses to provide warnings to Californians if a product leads to toxic chemical exposures that can cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.  The limits were put in place back in 1988 for lead and 1997 for cadmium.  There were 23 candy bars that were tested and if you ate more than 1 ounce it exceeded California's limits of 0.5 micrograms per day for lead which is about the size of a grain of sand.  Consumer Reports did the testing and reporting.  They used MADL (maximum allowable dose levels) to base their results.  Although Consumer Reports' levels showed high levels of lead, official food safety standards are based on different limits.  Many of the brands producing the chocolate bars tested in the study follow thresholds set by a 2018 California judgement which established safety standards based on different limits.  Bars that contain levels above those set in the judgement supersede the standards cited in the study; bars that contain levels above those levels require warning labels when sold in California.  It was reported that long-term exposure to even small amounts of heavy metal and cadmium can cause a variety of health problems, particularly in children and pregnant women.  Lead exposure can slow growth and development of children, particularly brain development, behavioral development and aggressive behavior.  Cadmium exposure can cause damage to the kidneys, lungs and bones.  Lead exposure becomes more dangerous as it accumulates in the body, and it can also cause hypertension and neurological effects.  An expert government committee agreed that the chocolate industry can manufacture chocolate products with lower levels of lead than they now do.  The experts didn't reach an agreement as to the amount of cadmium they could use.  Seems that cadmium occurs naturally in cacao before harvest while lead levels are influenced by where and how cocoa beans are handled by humans after harvest.  So, how exactly do heavy metals get into dark chocolate?  It was found that cacao plants take up cadmium from the soil before harvest, with the metal accumulating in cacao beans as trees grow.  Lead levels are influenced by where and how the cacao beans are handled by humans after harvest.  Post-harvest lead contamination mostly happens during the outdoor fermentation and drying of beans, during which soil and dust that contain lead come in contact with the cacao bean shell.  The beans are naturally coated with a sticky pulp known as "baba" or "Mucilage" which allows lead to cling to the beans while they are being fermented and dried in the open.  In some countries where cacao beans are grown, bans on leaded fuel, which can lead to roadside soil contamination, were introduced later than the bans in the U.S.  Less time between leaded fuel bans and current harvesting processes can contribute higher levels of roadside lead continuation in some places.  Bean cleaning and shell removal at chocolate manufacturing facilities also play a role in lead exposure.  Unlike lead, cadmium in cacao beans is introduced from soil through tree roots.  Soil additives such as limestone or zinc can reduce cadmium uptake without causing significant root damage, but cacao trees are grown in perennial orchards, where it is difficult to incorporate such additives.  Cacao plants take the cadmium up from the soil through roots and deposits it in the nibs (center) of cacao beans.  The amount of cadmium is highly variable and changes from farm to country.  The expert committee recommended changes to harvest and manufacturing processes to reduce lead contamination: minimizing soil contact with beans, drying beans on tables, using protective covers and clean tarps away from roads, improving existing mechanical cleaning and processing equipment, and evaluating the use of rapid lead test kits and rapid soil testing.  For cadmium, the committee recommended efforts to increase soil pH to reduce cadmium uptake, carefully breeding or genetically engineering plants to take up less cadmium, replacing older cacao trees with younger ones, and removing or treating soil known to be contaminated with cadmium.  How long will this take or go on into the future?  Who knows!  Perhaps you may want to give up dark chocolate consumption for...say a few years...or until they have dark chocolate safe to eat.  Soooooo....Happy Easter with less dark chocolate bunnies in the near future.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.