The Food and Drug Administration has issued a recall of powdered cinnamon manufactured by the company IHA Beverage due to concerns about elevated lead levels, the continuation of an issue that prompted the recall of a dozen other brands earlier this year. year and more than 50 children became ill in 2023 from contaminated bags of applesauce with cinnamon.
Key data
Four-ounce packages of Super brand cinnamon powder, sold primarily in California retail stores and some others across the United States, were recalled this week after routine sampling found the product contained elevated levels of lead.
No illnesses have been reported from consuming the product, and the voluntary recall comes after the FDA issued an updated public health alert about unsafe lead levels this summer.
This recall is the latest in a series of similar incidents that have affected cinnamon products across the country this year, from brands such as Supreme Tradition, La Fiesta and El Chilar.
People with short-term exposure to low levels of lead may never develop symptoms beyond elevated blood lead levels, says the FSA, but acute exposure to higher levels of lead or chronic exposure is associated with kidney dysfunction, Hypertension and neurocognitive effects in adults.
In children, exposure to heavy metals has been linked to lower IQ scores, intellectual disabilities, behavioral disorders, respiratory problems, cancer, and cardiovascular disease, and pregnant women can suffer miscarriages, stillbirths, or birth defects. birth in their children.
Key background
Elevated levels of lead in cinnamon became a hot topic last year, when bags of cinnamon-flavored applesauce marketed to children were found to have “extremely high” concentrations of lead. The bags manufactured by Austrofood SAS used cinnamon with lead levels between 2,270 parts per million and 5,110 ppm as an ingredient. Lead levels in specific foods allowed by the FDA vary, but what is generally considered safe includes 10 parts per billion for fruits and vegetables and 20 ppb for dry cereals. Contaminated bags were sold at Amazon, Dollar Tree, Sam’s Club, and other retailers nationwide, and more than 50 cases of adverse events in children ages 1 to 4 years were reported in the United States. The FDA said the Super ground cinnamon recalled this week contains “significantly lower” levels of lead than those found in Austrofood applesauce.
How does lead get into cinnamon?
There are several steps in the growing and manufacturing processes that can cause cinnamon to become contaminated with lead. Cinnamon trees can absorb lead from the soil or water through their roots or from the air during the growing process. Suppliers can add lead-containing additives to cinnamon to increase its weight, said a Harvard adjunct professor. And lead-containing equipment used in the milling process can contaminate the final product.
Tangent
American children born in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s experienced massive lead exposure due to the widespread use of leaded gasoline, lead in the air from automobile exhaust, and lead-based paint in cars. homes. Scientists have found that 90% of children born in the United States between 1950 and 1981 had blood lead levels above the current CDC threshold, and early childhood lead exposure resulted in a drop of 2. 6 points in IQ. Additionally, baby boomers now entering old age may soon begin to experience the adverse risks of neurodegenerative diseases of adulthood, particularly dementia, due to their high levels of childhood exposure, according to a 2019 paper from the University from Duke. National surveillance of lead levels first began in 1976 and the average American’s blood lead level was three times higher than the current level at which clinical care is recommended, the article said, and even higher in people who live in urban areas, next to busy highways, or near industries that emit lead. Today, lead exposure has decreased dramatically (average blood lead levels have fallen more than 90%) largely due to the phase-out of leaded gasoline, but researchers at Columbia University warn that low-level lead poisoning is still widespread around the world.
big number
765 million. That’s the annual loss of IQ points worldwide in children who have been exposed to lead, according to a study from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
This article was originally published by Forbes US.
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