Lead and Cadmium found in Chocolate

[Dahlia]

Can metals be taken up into the plant to cause the source of this problem? Are other nuts, pods etc at risk as well? Consumer Reports is said to be the testing source in this article:

Consumer Reports Found Lead In Dark Chocolate From Trader Joe's, Lindt, And More - Tasting Table

If you like dark chocolate, you're not going to like the findings of a new study that looked at lead and cadmium levels in popular dark chocolate bars.

www.tastingtable.com

This source article has a lot of answers and context. Still bothersome to me.

Lead and Cadmium Could Be in Your Dark Chocolate - Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports tested 28 dark chocolate bars and found cadmium and lead in all of them. Here's how to limit your heavy metal exposure.

www.consumerreports.org

Heavy metals found in dark chocolate including Hershey's and Trader Joe's

Consumer Reports says potentially harmful levels of cadmium and lead were detected in some chocolate brands.

www.cbsnews.com

I saw this article and weeped!

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Yeah, it's a pity; we've messed up the environment so much by now that even the natural and wild foods aren't any freer of industrial toxins than the processed stuff is. So much for going back to nature "for your health".

My chocolate brands of choice aren't on the list (since most are foreign) so I guess I'll have to stay in the dark for now.

I dunno, there seems a use for all of it. The coal in the ground burns out as pollution because of the humates that so long ago prevented things like mercury from entering plants through chelation processes. Its one big circle. It appears more compost is needed.

 

[flowerbug]

lead is a pollutant in many locations (along heavily traffic roads) because of leaded gasoline. i'm not sure that adding compost to such areas accomplishes much other than wasting the compost.

to remediate such areas they usually either cover it with better soil or remove the contaminated soil.

 

[heirloomgal]

I've always been a bit worried about the arsenic in rice. I think the rice plants actually knit stuff together as well from the soil to make the arsenic.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I've always been a bit worried about the arsenic in rice. I think the rice plants actually knit stuff together as well from the soil to make the arsenic.

No plant can MAKE arsenic, it's a discrete periodic table element., They might be able to "fix" arsenic compounds in a manner that made them more absorbable, but the arsenic ions themselves have to be coming out of the soil.

 

[flowerbug]

No plant can MAKE arsenic, it's a discrete periodic table element., They might be able to "fix" arsenic compounds in a manner that made them more absorbable, but the arsenic ions themselves have to be coming out of the soil.

some plants can also concentrate or selectively uptake some elements or compounds.

the article about the chocolate plant was talking about older plants accumulating more cadmium than younger plants. that's an interesting thing to me as i didn't think before that plants had that kind of dynamic going on in their lifecycle.