Amy Rosenfield started Dec. 15, 2022, with a big, exasperated sigh.
That day, Consumer Reports published original — though not peer-reviewed — research that swiveled a spotlight on numerous popular dark chocolate bars containing lead and cadmium quantities above California’s maximum allowable levels.
Rosenfield is the owner and “chocolate curator” at Mon Aimee Chocolat in the Strip District. While the shop doesn’t carry any of the brands identified by Consumer Reports, she knows how customers, or potential customers, might elaborate on those results.
“That was a concern for me, because then I distribute it to a place like Millie’s [Homemade Ice Cream], like Driftwood Oven bakery, and I don’t want them getting questions and not knowing how to answer them,” she said.
She made an immediate call to Guittard Chocolate Company, which her shop distributes, to get their latest lead and cadmium reports.
They raised no flags, but she knew they wouldn’t.
She works closely with the company, knows their practices, and also knows they’re located in California, where its Proposition 65 protects the public from damaging chemicals with more vigor than is seen elsewhere in the U.S.
But the story predictably took off. Published just before the December holiday season, the results threatened plates full of chocolate babka and chocolate chip cookies, especially in the U.S. — the country responsible for the most chocolate imports in the world, equating to 3.8 billion dollars annually.
Fourteen months later, and just ahead of Valentine’s Day, the results again seem relevant, as those in love, and in like, express themselves with chocolatey confections.
Why? Thank the Aztecs, who believed cacao, which they consumed as a beverage, was an aphrodisiac.
Modern scientists, seemingly shot by Cupid’s arrow, couldn’t resist the substance either. The results of their research are a Hershey’s Miniatures mixed bag of effects and, clear as corn syrup, they aren’t all sweet.
While not biologically confirmed to impact human sexuality, the cocoa does contain the building blocks of feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin, other mood boosters (theobromine and phenylethlalanine), cell-protecting antioxidants and flavonols, credited with everything from immune system function to brain-boosting powers.
That’s all especially true for dark chocolate varieties, which concentrate these effects in their higher percentage of cocoa, though that also explains why dark chocolate bears the brunt of — please enjoy this pun — the dark side of dark cocoa.
Consumer Reports’ dip into dark chocolate focused on levels of two heavy metals — lead and cadmium — in 21 brands of dark chocolate.
Headlining the most unsettling category of results — “high in both lead and cadmium” — are popular bars including Trader Joe’s The Dark Chocolate Lover’s Chocolate 85% Cacao, Lily’s Extreme Dark Chocolate 85% Cocoa, two different bars from Theo, and Green & Black’s Organic Dark Chocolate 70% Cacao.
The group dug deeper into the topic in October with a look at chocolate-containing foods, such as brownie and hot chocolate mixes. Of the 48 products tested, each one had detectable levels of lead and cadmium.
With deleterious health consequences, such as neurological, reproductive and hypertensive toxicity, associated with lead, and cadmium’s tendency to build up in the kidneys, affect the integrity of bones and potentially cause cancer, the results could cause consumers to stop asking for s’more.
Could.
According to Nils-Gerrit Wunsch, senior research expert covering global food trends for Statista, “The revenue in the ‘Chocolate Confectionery’ segment of the food market in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2023 and 2028 by, in total, 7.3 billion U.S. dollars,” as published by statista.com on Dec. 14, over a year after the Consumer Reports research published.
According to Rosenfield, none of that — the lead, the cadmium or the unchanged chocolate obsession — is surprising.
“It’s good that people are asking questions, but keep in mind that everything that grows in the soil can have lead in it because lead is in the soil,” she said. “Honestly, not enough consumers have asked questions [about lead and cadmium] since this was exposed.”
Her confidence doesn’t only hinge on her business’ ongoing success or the saccharine predictions of an economist but her presence at the Fine Chocolate Industry Association seminar at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City in July, where experts spoke on this exact topic and shared at least some of the science available to put these “leaded” candy bars in perspective.
Both lead and cadmium are natural findings in the earth’s crust, though human practices worsened the issue.
Now outlawed in the U.S., leaded gasoline, fertilizers and paints, along with mining practices and some water service lines, greatly contribute to environmental lead.
Cadmium is used in batteries, pigments, metal coatings and plastics, and can be released into the air with cigarette smoke, forest fires and volcanic eruptions.
As a result, concentrations of lead and cadmium can be concerning in certain areas — in the soil, air and water — depending on what they’re near and how they’ve been treated previously. If those regions are then used for farming, or even a backyard garden, those contaminants can reach foods now known to harbor either metal (or both), such as raspberries, strawberries, carrots, celery and tomatoes, based on a 2021 study published in Scientific Reports.
Further, some plants are known as “hyperaccumulators,” those with a greater ability to leach heavy metals from soil and absorb it. As of 2002, there were 417 varieties of known hyperaccumulators, and one quarter of those belong to the genus brassica, which includes its modern-day mascot, kale.
That raises the issues of limits and amounts.
California’s maximum allowable daily limit — Consumer Reports’ criteria for “too much” — conflicts with the Food and Drug Administration’s upper limit, 0.5 micrograms per day for adults versus 125 micrograms per day for non-childbearing adults, respectively.
While there’s “no known safe blood level concentration” of lead, per the World Health Organization, the contaminant is nearly everywhere, not just in chocolate bars.
According to Keith Ayoob, pediatric nutritionist, associate professor emeritus at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, creator of thechocolatelife.com and one of the speakers heard by Rosenfield last summer, it isn’t likely that eating chocolate will result in cadmium or lead toxicity.
“You get a lot more of each from the rest of your diet and probably always have,” he wrote in a post titled, “Lead + cadmium + chocolate does NOT have to equal fear.”
When answering a self-posed question about risk, Ayoob wrote, “You probably don’t need to worry — unless there is some other confounding dietary, genetic or medical factor.”
Barring those, Rosenfield recommends buying chocolate from specialty chocolate shops to keep your chocolate noshes as healthy — and well-informed — as possible.
“Typically, small specialty shop owners will have more information and attend seminars and get different trade journals online. A lot of us try to stay in tune with things that are important in the industry,” she said. “I want you to ask any question you have. I want to inform you. I want you to understand this is not a problem, and that you can keep eating your Valentine’s chocolate.”
And pro tip: Let your Valentine know all the extra effort you put into finding top-notch chocolate. That may be a love language unto itself.
Pittsburgh-area chocolatiers
The Pittsburgh region is rich with chocolatiers who can answer your questions.
Take a bite out of:
East
Dorothy's Candies, 1228 Long Run Road (Route 48), White Oak
Edward Marc Chocolatier, 509 Cavitt Ave, Trafford
Valos Chocolates, 2009 Freeport Road, Arnold
West
Andy’s Candies, 9717 Steubenville Pike , Bulger
Sarris Candies, 511 Adams Ave., Canonsburg
North
Anderson's Candies, 1010 W. State St., Baden
Betsy Ann American Chocolates, 322 Perry Highway, West View
Pollak's Candies, 352 Butler St., Etna
Yetter's Candies, 504 Grant Ave., Millvale
Online
A519 Chocolate (412-475-9519
Tabbara Artisan Chocolates; available in select stores
Abby Mackey is a registered nurse and can be reached at amackey@post-gazette.com and IG @abbymackeywrites
First Published: February 4, 2024, 10:30 a.m.
Updated: February 7, 2024, 2:20 p.m.
