<story><title>Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead</title><url>https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/your-herbs-and-spices-might-contain-arsenic-cadmium-and-lead/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Eelongate</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;CONSUMER REPORTS tested 126 herbs and spices from 38 brands for arsenic, cadmium, and lead. (We did not test spices that tend to be used in baking, such as cinnamon and nutmeg.) We tested two or three samples from different lots of each product.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;This testing is frustratingly sparse, couldn&amp;#x27;t they find garlic powder in Trader Joe&amp;#x27;s?  They&amp;#x27;re missing many brands for many of these spices.  And I don&amp;#x27;t think you can bake heavy metals out of food, so why did they omit cinnamon?&lt;p&gt;What is a concerned consumer like myself supposed to do now?  Eat food without spices?  Buy test kits and test spices myself?  I guess I could write a letter to my congresspeople to tell the FDA to do their goddamn jobs, but I don&amp;#x27;t expect that to work.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>OneLeggedCat</author><text>&amp;gt; This testing is frustratingly sparse&lt;p&gt;A very common problem with Consumer Reports.  Very.  They also never make that shitty data&amp;#x27;s origins easily available for critique.&lt;p&gt;I have subscribed to them for over twenty years.  This has always been a problem with them.  Good intentions (that&amp;#x27;s my belief), but poor statistical execution and evidence.</text></comment>
<story><title>Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead</title><url>https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/your-herbs-and-spices-might-contain-arsenic-cadmium-and-lead/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Eelongate</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;CONSUMER REPORTS tested 126 herbs and spices from 38 brands for arsenic, cadmium, and lead. (We did not test spices that tend to be used in baking, such as cinnamon and nutmeg.) We tested two or three samples from different lots of each product.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;This testing is frustratingly sparse, couldn&amp;#x27;t they find garlic powder in Trader Joe&amp;#x27;s?  They&amp;#x27;re missing many brands for many of these spices.  And I don&amp;#x27;t think you can bake heavy metals out of food, so why did they omit cinnamon?&lt;p&gt;What is a concerned consumer like myself supposed to do now?  Eat food without spices?  Buy test kits and test spices myself?  I guess I could write a letter to my congresspeople to tell the FDA to do their goddamn jobs, but I don&amp;#x27;t expect that to work.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>oasisbob</author><text>I find it frustrating that they didn&amp;#x27;t test many foreign brands, but recommend against import nonetheless.&lt;p&gt;Laxmi Turmeric is the one Indian (for import) spice brand I recognize on the list. Testing Devi, and the other common import brands, as well as true desi brands would have been interesting.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Curry powder&amp;quot; is a weird one to test. Might as well compare Italian blends as well.</text></comment>