Cashews
Completeness scorecard
Deterministic gap audit — no score is composite, no cell is LLM-judged. Each chip is re-derivable by re-running tools/evidence/build-ingredient-scorecard.mjs. review: residuals and missing data are worked autonomously via data/evidence/ingredient-scorecard-review-flags.csv and wiki/completeness-gaps.md.
| Dimension | Status | What’s there (auditable counts) | What’s missing |
|---|---|---|---|
| D1 Analyte coverage (tier: occasional) | GAP | 3/10 HMTc analytes, total n=8 | only 3/10 analytes have evidence |
| D2 Regional coverage | OK | 6 jurisdictions, top EU 33% | — |
| D3 Anthropogenic evidence | GAP | no upstream/attribution sources | link a supply-chain/ hub page |
| D4 Background mechanism | GAP | section present, 4 drivers, 0 upstream source(s) | no upstream source to substantiate |
| D5 Pooling depth | THIN | Pb THIN, Cd THIN, Ni THIN, Cr THIN | Pb: needs 1 more study(ies); Cd: needs 1 more study(ies); Ni: needs 1 more study(ies); Cr: needs 1 more study(ies) |
| D6 Speciation | OK | iAs, tAs, tHg declared | — |
| D7 Basis declaration | GAP | 0/10 populated cells declare a basis token | 10 populated cell(s) lack a basis token: Pb, Cd, iAs, tAs, tHg, Ni, Al, Cr, Sn, U |
| D8 Provenance integrity | OK | 1 claims checked, 1 supported; 1 citations, 0 orphan, 0 foreign | — |
| D9 Mitigation | GAP | 0 cited lever(s), 6 mitigation/ link(s) | section present but no source-cited lever |
| D10 Regulatory coverage | OK | 2 rule link(s), 0 metal(s) covered | unmapped analytes: Pb, Cd, Ni, Cr |
| D11 Standards-readiness | NOT-READY | priority: Pb, Cd, Ni, Cr; pairing 0 paired, 4 single, 0 unpaired | Pb: THIN, needs 1 more study(ies); Cd: THIN, needs 1 more study(ies); Ni: THIN, needs 1 more study(ies); Cr: THIN, needs 1 more study(ies); basis: 10 populated cell(s) lack a basis token: Pb, Cd, iAs, tAs, tHg, Ni, Al, Cr, Sn, U; depth below occasional bar |
| Principle balance | flag | consumer-protection 0.67, contamination-reduction 0.00, brand-value 0.00, legal-defensibility 0.75, scale 0.25 | spread 0.75 — starved: contamination-reduction |
Source-grounded narrative on this page is populated incrementally from the routed source pages per CLAUDE.md Part 9; values for analytes marked as data gap below have not yet accumulated 2+ A-tier contributing sources.
Heavy metal contamination profile
Per-analyte snapshot derived from the machine-readable contamination_profile in the frontmatter above. data gap indicates the literature has been reviewed for this commodity-analyte combination and no usable occurrence data was found (a finding, not a placeholder). The Key sources column shows the top 2-3 contributing sources by year and sample size, with numbered wikilink aliases.
| Analyte | Coverage | Typical (ppb) | p95 (ppb) | Confidence | Key sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pb | — | — | — | — | — |
| Cd | — | — | — | — | — |
| iAs | — | — | — | — | — |
| tAs | — | — | — | — | — |
| tHg | — | — | — | — | — |
| Ni | — | — | — | — | — |
| Al | — | — | — | — | — |
| Cr | — | — | — | — | — |
| Sn | — | — | — | — | — |
| U | — | — | — | — | — |
Sources
Auto-generated from source-page frontmatter. The “Used on this page for” column is populated by the orchestrator’s POPULATE-SOURCE-LEGEND action; pending entries appear as *[awaiting synthesis]*.
| # | Citation | Year | Type | Used on this page for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Good et al. 2026. Comparative exposure and risk assessment of heavy metals, nutrients, and organochlorine pesticides in cow and plant-based milks, Scientific Reports | 2026 | Peer-reviewed | US Cr, tAs, Cd, Pb occurrence in Twenty-two commercially available milk products purchased from major grocery retailers in Houston, Texas, USA. Eight milk-type categories: cow… (n=22) |
| 2 | Ćwieląg-Drabek et al. 2025. Evaluation of Cadmium, Lead, Chromium, and Nickel Content in Various Types of Nuts: Almonds, Cashews, Hazelnuts, Peanuts, and Walnuts – Health Risk of Polish Consumers, Biological Trace Element Research | 2025 | Peer-reviewed | EU/PL/CN Cd, Pb, Cr, Ni occurrence in 69 nut samples (16 peanuts, 15 hazelnuts, 15 almonds, 8 cashews, 15 walnuts) from Polish retail market; 13… (n=69) |
| 3 | Ćwieląg-Drabek et al. 2025. Evaluation of Cadmium, Lead, Chromium, and Nickel Content in Various Types of Nuts: Almonds, Cashews, Hazelnuts, Peanuts, and Walnuts – Health Risk of Polish Consumers, Biological Trace Element Research | 2025 | Peer-reviewed | PL/EU Cd, Pb, Cr, Ni occurrence in Commercial nuts (almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, peanuts, walnuts) available on the Polish market (n=69) |
| 4 | Redan et al. 2023. Analysis of Eight Types of Plant-based Milk Alternatives from the United States Market for Target Minerals and Trace Elements, Journal of Food Composition and Analysis | 2023 | Peer-reviewed | US tAs, Cd, Pb occurrence in Eighty-five plant-based milk alternative product units from 19 brands purchased from 10 retail markets and an online retailer… (n=85) |
| 5 | Bielecka et al. 2021. Assessment of the Safe Consumption of Nuts in Terms of the Content of Toxic Elements with Chemometric Analysis, Nutrients | 2021 | Peer-reviewed | Poland tAs, Cd, Pb, tHg occurrence in One hundred twenty edible nut samples purchased from Polish markets between January and March 2021: ten samples each… (n=120) |
| 6 | Nkwocha et al. 2021. Chemical composition of raw cashew (Anacardium occidentale) nuts sourced from Enugu State, South Eastern Nigeria, Journal of Food Safety and Food Quality | 2021 | Peer-reviewed | NG Cd, Pb, tHg occurrence in fresh cashew nut samples from Obukpa-Lejja, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria (n=not reported) |
Why this commodity accumulates heavy metals
Cashews (Anacardium occidentale kernels) are a documented nickel accumulator. The cashew tree is grown predominantly in West Africa, Vietnam, India, and Brazil, and the cashew kernel concentrates nickel from soil at much higher rates than other tree nuts. Cashew kernel Ni concentrations routinely fall in the 4,000-9,000 µg/kg range, which is an order of magnitude higher than almond, walnut, or hazelnut from comparable soil conditions. The mechanism involves the cashew plant’s nickel-uptake-and-translocation behavior; even cashews grown on low-Ni soils carry substantially higher Ni than other tree nuts on the same soil.
The cashew shell oil (a separate product extracted from the shell) carries different metal profiles from the kernel and is sometimes used industrially; this page addresses the food-consumed kernel. The Cat 4 Step 0 lock designates cashews as a higher-contamination row pair to the general nuts-seeds-other row (cashews vs nuts-seeds-other) because of this Ni-accumulator pattern.
The HMTc panel concerns for cashews are dominantly Ni, with secondary Cd from regional soil-Cd inheritance and trace Pb from production and post-harvest handling. Ćwiela̧g-Drabek 2025 documents Polish-market nut Cd/Pb/Cr/Ni and reports the cashew Ni profile relative to other tree nuts; BfR 2022 reports comparable cashew Ni context.
Ranges by source, region, and variety
Geographic variance: West African cashews (Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria — the largest production region globally), Vietnamese cashews (the largest cashew-processing region), Indian cashews, and Brazilian cashews show some per-origin variance in Ni driven by soil-Ni baseline, but the species-level Ni-accumulator behavior dominates across origins. Variance within an origin is smaller than the order-of-magnitude difference between cashews and non-Ni-accumulating tree nuts.
Per-grade: Roasted, salted, and other consumer-finishing treatments do not change source-kernel Ni. Whole-kernel cashews and broken-piece cashews carry approximately equivalent per-mass Ni.
Processing effects
Cashew processing (shelling, drying, roasting, salting, packaging) does not change kernel Ni meaningfully. Soaking (a traditional preparation for cashew-based recipes like cashew cream) does not appreciably reduce Ni because Ni is bound within the kernel tissue. Cashew butter and ground cashew products retain the source-kernel Ni proportional to the kernel mass.
Cashew shell oil (a separate industrial product containing anacardic acids and not consumed as food) has its own contamination profile and is not addressed here.
Ingredient-derivative risk
Cashew derivatives concentrate or dilute Ni according to processing route:
Cashew butter and cashew paste: Same per-mass Ni as source kernel.
Cashew milk: Diluted Ni proportional to the cashew-fraction in the recipe (typically 2-5 percent cashew by mass, so cashew milk carries ~5-10 percent of source-kernel per-mass Ni). See plant-milk and plant-milks-non-soy-non-rice.
Cashew flour and cashew protein concentrate: Concentrated per-mass Ni because water has been removed. Cashew-protein dietary supplements carry per-serving Ni at concentrated levels.
Cashew cream (Indian and Southeast-Asian cuisine): Concentrated cashew-fraction (water added) with intermediate Ni per serving.
Mitigation options
Sourcing levers (supply-chain-screening) are limited for the dominant Ni concern because the species itself is the accumulator; geographic-region selection moves the needle within a narrow range. Single-origin sourcing with documented per-lot Ni testing is the operational specification. For Cd and Pb (secondary concerns), low-Cd-Pb production regions and post-harvest practice verification matter more.
Agronomic levers (agronomic) operate at the cashew-farm level: cultivar selection (some cashew varieties have been documented at slightly lower Ni accumulation, though the species-level pattern dominates), soil pH management, fertilizer specification. None of these substantially change the cashew Ni position relative to other tree nuts.
Processing levers (processing) are limited; Ni is kernel-bound and not removable by processing.
Formulation levers (formulation) are the dominant brand-side intervention for products that don’t need to be cashew-specific. Substituting almond, walnut, or hazelnut for cashew in nut-blend products substantially reduces per-product Ni. For products that must be cashew-based (cashew milk, cashew butter, cashew-based vegan cheese), the substitution lever is unavailable; per-serving size guidance and population-targeting then become the operational mitigation.
Testing and QC levers (testing-and-qc) include lot-level Ni testing on incoming cashew shipments, particularly for products targeting low-Ni diet populations (nickel-sensitive eczema patients, for whom dietary Ni restriction is a clinical recommendation). See icp-ms.
Packaging and storage levers (packaging-and-storage) are not consequential for cashew Ni.
Regulatory limits that apply
- eu-2023-915 — EU Reg. 2023/915 sets maximum levels for Cd and Pb in tree nuts; the cashew Cd ML is the relevant cap. EU does not currently set a binding Ni ML for cashews; the EFSA opinion on dietary nickel exposure provides reference.
- Codex Alimentarius does not maintain a cashew-specific or general tree-nut Ni ML.
- FDA does not maintain binding action levels for cashew metals.
- California Prop 65 (california-prop65) applies Pb, Cd, and Ni MADLs to cashew products sold in California.
Page history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.
| Commit | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| b0f3d38 | 2026-06-12 | batch | corpus rescreen b04 old terminal skips |