The Heavy Metal Index is a public-facing reference on heavy metals in food, supply chain, remediation, and regulatory findings. It is operated by the Paleo Foundation, a standards organization based in Cyprus. The index is the principal scientific reference asset of the Foundation’s heavy metals program.
Why this resource exists
Heavy metals in food have become a recurring topic of scientific investigation, regulatory action, consumer concern, and civil litigation. The published literature, across peer-reviewed journals, agency reports, industry documents, and third-party testing, is large and fragmented. A curated index of that literature, with source-linked provenance and a consistent extraction methodology, serves regulators developing thresholds, brands performing due diligence on their supply chains, journalists and scientists synthesizing findings, and consumers making informed decisions.
The stated aim is to be the canonical reference for heavy metals in food. “Canonical” in this context means comprehensive (approaching full coverage of the scientific and regulatory record), accurate (verifiable to source at every data point), and independent (reporting what the literature supports without advocacy).
Editorial independence
The Paleo Foundation also operates the Heavy Metal Tested and Certified (HMT&C) certification program at heavymetaltested.com. These properties are maintained as architecturally separate products with one-way reference only. HMT&C documents may cite Heavy Metal Index pages for the literature baseline. The Heavy Metal Index does not mention HMT&C-certified brands, does not endorse specific products, and does not function as justification material for the certification program. This separation is deliberate, enforced in the editorial policy, and reviewable by inspecting the published content.
Governance
Methodology, selection criteria, extraction approach, quality-assurance audit procedures, and error-handling workflow are documented on the methodology page. The wiki is version-controlled in git; every substantive change is committed with provenance, and the commit log is the authoritative record of who changed what and when.
Relationship to other Paleo Foundation properties
WikiBiome is the Foundation’s companion reference on microbiome medicine. Metallomics content that is primarily clinical rather than food-and-supply-chain belongs on WikiBiome; the two sites link to one another where topics bridge the scopes.
The Journal of Food Metallomics is a peer-reviewed publication venue for synthesis work built on the Heavy Metal Index corpus.
Contact
Correspondence, corrections, and licensing inquiries: see contact.