Cinnamon is versatile—it can be everything from a breakfast food topping to a star ingredient in baked goods to a surprise spice in savory recipes. In addition to its sweet, earthy flavor, cinnamon can also help reduce inflammation, prevent heart disease, and improve metabolic health. However, you’ll want to double-check your spice cabinet before adding a pinch of cinnamon to your morning oatmeal. A new ground cinnamon product has been identified in an ongoing investigation of spices with high levels of lead.
RELATED: FDA Expands Nationwide Recall of Supplements "Tainted With Drug Ingredients."
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended a voluntary recall of El Servidor packaged ground cinnamon after product testing conducted by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets confirmed that the spice “contains elevated levels of lead and that exposure to this product may be unsafe,” per a July 25 public health alert.
El Servidor is the latest company to be added to the FDA’s ongoing recall list. In the agency’s initial health alert posted on March 6, ground cinnamon sold by brands La Fiesta, Marcum, MK, Swad, Supreme Tradition (sold at Dollar Tree and Family Dollar), and El Chilar were revealed to have traceable amounts of lead.
According to international food safety standards set by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the recommended limit for lead levels in bark spices like cinnamon is 2.5 parts per million. The March 6 recall included ground cinnamon products whose lead levels ranged from 2.03 to 3.4 parts per million.
As for the most recent recall, the FDA reported that El Servidor ground cinnamon has a staggering 20 parts per million of lead.
“The FDA is advising consumers to throw away and not to buy the ground cinnamon product listed above because samples of this product were found to contain elevated levels of lead. Based on FDA’s assessment, exposure to this ground cinnamon product may be unsafe and could contribute to elevated levels of lead in the blood,” the statement reads.
RELATED: FDA Just Set Nationwide Ban on Ingredient in Popular Sodas.
Exposure to lead-contaminated products can pose a serious risk to one’s health. However, symptoms and illness severity can vary depending on “the level of lead in the food; age of the consumer; length, amount, and frequency of exposure to lead in the food; and other exposures to different sources of lead,” says the FDA. Newborns and young children are most at risk due to their “smaller body sizes and rapid metabolism and growth.”
Lead poisoning in adults can prompt high blood pressure, muscle pain, headaches, abdominal pain, changes in mood, difficulties with memory or concentration, reduced sperm count, and additional risks in pregnant people, warns the Mayo Clinic. Children with lead poisoning may experience irritability, loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue, vomiting, constipation, development delay, hearing loss, and seizures.
As of this reporting, there have been no reports of illness tied to the El Servidor cinnamon. The FDA has notified the company of its findings, and is asking the distributor to take immediate action. In the interim, the agency is requesting that all customers discard any ground cinnamon products sold by the brand.
The investigation is ongoing, and the FDA plans to update its list of recalled products as more findings come to light.
“The FDA is continuing to review sample results received from state partners who have been continuously sampling ground cinnamon at retail for elevated levels of lead and will update this alert as necessary if the FDA finds that additional products contain elevated levels of lead and that exposure to these products may be unsafe,” the agency assures.
