Heavy metals in Cocoa

Cocoa overview

Cadmium is the metal that sets cocoa apart, and it travels with the cocoa solids. In the US retail survey by Abt and colleagues, mean cadmium was 700 µg/kg in cocoa powder, 270 µg/kg in dark chocolate and 60 µg/kg in milk chocolate.^{1Eileen Abt, Jennifer Fong Sam, Patrick Gray, Lauren Posnick Robin · 2018Cadmium and Lead in Cocoa Powder and Chocolate Products in the U.S. MarketFood Additives & Contaminants: Part B SurveillanceRead source →} In Japan, the median rose from 23 µg/kg in chocolate under 50% cocoa to 250 µg/kg at 80% or more.^{2Kataoka Y, Watanabe T, Hayashi K, Akiyama H · 2018Surveillance of Cadmium Concentration in Chocolate and Cocoa Powder Products Distributed in JapanFood Hygiene and Safety ScienceRead source →} Lead, by contrast, is usually lower and is driven more by what happens to the bean after harvest than by where it grew.^{3Ahn, Timothy, Chaney, Rufus L., DiBartolomeis, Michael J., Ramtahal, Gideon · 2022Expert Investigation Related to Cocoa and Chocolate Products: Final ReportExpert Committee report submitted to As You Sow and the Settling Defendants under a California Proposition 65 Consent Judgment; Project Manager: Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG). Final Report dated March 28, 2022 (381 pp., including three technical attachments).Read source →8Eileen Abt, Lauren Posnick Robin · 2020Perspective on Cadmium and Lead in Cocoa and ChocolateJournal of Agricultural and Food ChemistryRead source →}

Growing origin is the strongest supported lever for cadmium. In industry bean testing compiled for a California settlement, median bean cadmium was 55–94 µg/kg for Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon and Brazil, against 511 µg/kg for Ecuador, 542 µg/kg for Peru and 892 µg/kg for Venezuela.^{3Ahn, Timothy, Chaney, Rufus L., DiBartolomeis, Michael J., Ramtahal, Gideon · 2022Expert Investigation Related to Cocoa and Chocolate Products: Final ReportExpert Committee report submitted to As You Sow and the Settling Defendants under a California Proposition 65 Consent Judgment; Project Manager: Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG). Final Report dated March 28, 2022 (381 pp., including three technical attachments).Read source →} The international cadmium assessment found the same pattern in cocoa powder, with a mean of 141 µg/kg in the mainly African cluster and 1,601 µg/kg in the mainly South and Central American cluster.^{9Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives · 2022Cadmium: dietary exposure assessmentWHO Food Additives Series, No. 82 (Safety evaluation of certain contaminants in food, prepared by the 91st meeting of JECFA)Read source →} The low-cadmium origins are not lower in lead, so origin choice addresses one metal, not both.^{3Ahn, Timothy, Chaney, Rufus L., DiBartolomeis, Michael J., Ramtahal, Gideon · 2022Expert Investigation Related to Cocoa and Chocolate Products: Final ReportExpert Committee report submitted to As You Sow and the Settling Defendants under a California Proposition 65 Consent Judgment; Project Manager: Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG). Final Report dated March 28, 2022 (381 pp., including three technical attachments).Read source →10Ferreira de Oliveira AP, Milani RF, Efraim P, Morgano MA, Tfouni SAV · 2021Cd and Pb in cocoa beans: Occurrence and effects of chocolate processingFood Control 119, 107455Read source →}

For a buyer, the supported priorities are lot results for cadmium with the cocoa-solids content stated, and cleaning and shelling controls for lead.^{3Ahn, Timothy, Chaney, Rufus L., DiBartolomeis, Michael J., Ramtahal, Gideon · 2022Expert Investigation Related to Cocoa and Chocolate Products: Final ReportExpert Committee report submitted to As You Sow and the Settling Defendants under a California Proposition 65 Consent Judgment; Project Manager: Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG). Final Report dated March 28, 2022 (381 pp., including three technical attachments).Read source →7European Commission · 2023Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915 of 25 April 2023 on maximum levels for certain contaminants in food and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006Official Journal of the European UnionRead source →} The EU limits cadmium at 0.10 to 0.80 mg/kg in chocolate according to cocoa content and at 0.60 mg/kg in cocoa powder, and the Codex Alimentarius standard sets 0.3 to 0.9 mg/kg for chocolate and 2.0 mg/kg for cocoa powder.^{7European Commission · 2023Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915 of 25 April 2023 on maximum levels for certain contaminants in food and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006Official Journal of the European UnionRead source →11Codex Alimentarius Commission · 1995General Standard for Contaminants and Toxins in Food and Feed (CXS 193-1995)Codex Alimentarius (Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme)Read source →} Chocolate supplied about 4% of dietary cadmium across European age groups and close to 10%, with other cocoa products, for school-age children; JECFA judged cocoa a minor contributor overall.^{12European Food Safety Authority · 2012Cadmium dietary exposure in the European populationEFSA Journal 2012;10(1):2551Read source →9Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives · 2022Cadmium: dietary exposure assessmentWHO Food Additives Series, No. 82 (Safety evaluation of certain contaminants in food, prepared by the 91st meeting of JECFA)Read source →}

What counts as cocoa

Cocoa comes from the seeds of Theobroma cacao, which are fermented, dried, cleaned and roasted, then separated into shell and nib.^{10Ferreira de Oliveira AP, Milani RF, Efraim P, Morgano MA, Tfouni SAV · 2021Cd and Pb in cocoa beans: Occurrence and effects of chocolate processingFood Control 119, 107455Read source →13Codex Alimentarius Commission · 2022Code of Practice for the Prevention and Reduction of Cadmium Contamination in Cocoa Beans (CXC 81-2022)FAO and WHO, 2023. Codex Alimentarius Code of Practice No. CXC 81-2022. Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme. Rome.Read source →} Ground nibs form cocoa liquor, which is pressed into cocoa butter and a cake milled into cocoa powder; chocolate combines liquor, butter, sugar and, in milk chocolate, milk solids.^{3Ahn, Timothy, Chaney, Rufus L., DiBartolomeis, Michael J., Ramtahal, Gideon · 2022Expert Investigation Related to Cocoa and Chocolate Products: Final ReportExpert Committee report submitted to As You Sow and the Settling Defendants under a California Proposition 65 Consent Judgment; Project Manager: Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG). Final Report dated March 28, 2022 (381 pp., including three technical attachments).Read source →10Ferreira de Oliveira AP, Milani RF, Efraim P, Morgano MA, Tfouni SAV · 2021Cd and Pb in cocoa beans: Occurrence and effects of chocolate processingFood Control 119, 107455Read source →}

These fractions behave differently for metals, so this page keeps them apart. In a pilot run on Bahia beans, cadmium was 60 µg/kg in the liquor and 111 µg/kg in the powder, while the cocoa butter was below the 1.5 µg/kg quantification limit.^{10Ferreira de Oliveira AP, Milani RF, Efraim P, Morgano MA, Tfouni SAV · 2021Cd and Pb in cocoa beans: Occurrence and effects of chocolate processingFood Control 119, 107455Read source →} Bean shells carry much of the lead: in industry testing the median shell lead was 341 µg/kg against 1.2 µg/kg in the separated nibs.^{3Ahn, Timothy, Chaney, Rufus L., DiBartolomeis, Michael J., Ramtahal, Gideon · 2022Expert Investigation Related to Cocoa and Chocolate Products: Final ReportExpert Committee report submitted to As You Sow and the Settling Defendants under a California Proposition 65 Consent Judgment; Project Manager: Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG). Final Report dated March 28, 2022 (381 pp., including three technical attachments).Read source →}

The page covers beans and nibs, liquor, butter, natural and alkalised cocoa powder, sweetened drinking-chocolate powder sold as powder, and dark, milk and white chocolate. Foods that only contain cocoa, such as chocolate milk, cakes, cereals, spreads and filled or coated confectionery, are outside its scope, as is cocoa butter used as a skin-protectant drug.^{5World Health Organization · 2026GEMS/Food Contaminants database heavy-metal exportsGEMS/Food Contamination Monitoring and Assessment ProgrammeRead source →14U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2022FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical ResultsFDA Total Diet StudyRead source →15U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2021Over-the-Counter (OTC) Monograph M016: Skin Protectant Drug Products for Over-the-Counter Human Use (Posted September 24, 2021)U.S. Food and Drug Administration, OTC Monograph M016, Final Administrative Order OTC000005Read source →} Beans are usually reported on a dry-weight basis and products as sold, and the two are not converted into each other.^{1Eileen Abt, Jennifer Fong Sam, Patrick Gray, Lauren Posnick Robin · 2018Cadmium and Lead in Cocoa Powder and Chocolate Products in the U.S. MarketFood Additives & Contaminants: Part B SurveillanceRead source →16Arévalo-Gardini E, Arévalo-Hernández CO, Baligar VC, He ZL · 2017Heavy metal accumulation in leaves and beans of cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) in major cacao growing regions in PeruScience of the Total EnvironmentRead source →}

Heavy metal contamination profile of cocoa

The table holds every cocoa and chocolate result extracted from 40 survey, farm, total diet, monitoring and assessment sources: one row for each statistic a source reports for a subgroup, form and metal.^{1Eileen Abt, Jennifer Fong Sam, Patrick Gray, Lauren Posnick Robin · 2018Cadmium and Lead in Cocoa Powder and Chocolate Products in the U.S. MarketFood Additives & Contaminants: Part B SurveillanceRead source →3Ahn, Timothy, Chaney, Rufus L., DiBartolomeis, Michael J., Ramtahal, Gideon · 2022Expert Investigation Related to Cocoa and Chocolate Products: Final ReportExpert Committee report submitted to As You Sow and the Settling Defendants under a California Proposition 65 Consent Judgment; Project Manager: Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG). Final Report dated March 28, 2022 (381 pp., including three technical attachments).Read source →5World Health Organization · 2026GEMS/Food Contaminants database heavy-metal exportsGEMS/Food Contamination Monitoring and Assessment ProgrammeRead source →14U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2022FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical ResultsFDA Total Diet StudyRead source →9Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives · 2022Cadmium: dietary exposure assessmentWHO Food Additives Series, No. 82 (Safety evaluation of certain contaminants in food, prepared by the 91st meeting of JECFA)Read source →} Ratings place a mean, median or single result against a pooled reference for the same cocoa form, built from WHO GEMS/Food region-by-year medians, individual products and batches, and published subgroup medians; non-detects remain intervals and are never read as zero.^{1Eileen Abt, Jennifer Fong Sam, Patrick Gray, Lauren Posnick Robin · 2018Cadmium and Lead in Cocoa Powder and Chocolate Products in the U.S. MarketFood Additives & Contaminants: Part B SurveillanceRead source →2Kataoka Y, Watanabe T, Hayashi K, Akiyama H · 2018Surveillance of Cadmium Concentration in Chocolate and Cocoa Powder Products Distributed in JapanFood Hygiene and Safety ScienceRead source →5World Health Organization · 2026GEMS/Food Contaminants database heavy-metal exportsGEMS/Food Contamination Monitoring and Assessment ProgrammeRead source →17Fechner C, Hackethal C, Höpfner T, Dietrich J, Bloch D, Lindtner O, Sarvan I · 2022Results of the BfR MEAL Study: In Germany, mercury is mostly contained in fish and seafood while cadmium, lead, and nickel are present in a broad spectrum of foodsFood Chemistry: XRead source →} Rows that failed a check against their own paper stay visible with the reason and are not compared.^{18Amjad M, Hussain S, Baloch ZU, Raza A · 2021Determination of Heavy Metals in Locally Available Chocolates in Lahore RegionTurkish Journal of Agriculture - Food Science and TechnologyRead source →19Emmanuel Joy Enogbe, Agbaghare Daniel Enajeme · 2025Levels of heavy metals concentrations in chocolates from Bwari market Abuja FCT, NigeriaInternational Journal of Adulteration9:e2ijad3057Read source →20Romero-Estevez D, Yanez-Jacome GS, Simbana-Farinango K, Navarrete H · 2019Content and the relationship between cadmium, nickel, and lead concentrations in Ecuadorian cocoa beans from nine provincesFood ControlRead source →}

Cadmium and lead dominate the evidence; nickel, total arsenic, mercury, chromium, aluminium and tin are reported by fewer sources.^{4EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) · 2015Scientific Opinion on the risks to public health related to the presence of nickel in food and drinking waterEFSA Journal 2015;13(2):4002, 202 pp.Read source →5World Health Organization · 2026GEMS/Food Contaminants database heavy-metal exportsGEMS/Food Contamination Monitoring and Assessment ProgrammeRead source →17Fechner C, Hackethal C, Höpfner T, Dietrich J, Bloch D, Lindtner O, Sarvan I · 2022Results of the BfR MEAL Study: In Germany, mercury is mostly contained in fish and seafood while cadmium, lead, and nickel are present in a broad spectrum of foodsFood Chemistry: XRead source →} Nickel is high in cocoa compared with most foods: European monitoring averaged about 9,500 µg/kg in cocoa beans and products and 3,800 µg/kg in chocolate, and a German cocoa powder pool held 11,050 µg/kg.^{4EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) · 2015Scientific Opinion on the risks to public health related to the presence of nickel in food and drinking waterEFSA Journal 2015;13(2):4002, 202 pp.Read source →17Fechner C, Hackethal C, Höpfner T, Dietrich J, Bloch D, Lindtner O, Sarvan I · 2022Results of the BfR MEAL Study: In Germany, mercury is mostly contained in fish and seafood while cadmium, lead, and nickel are present in a broad spectrum of foodsFood Chemistry: XRead source →} Arsenic results are almost all totals, and nearly every European inorganic-arsenic result for chocolate and cocoa powder was below a limit of about 20 µg/kg.^{5World Health Organization · 2026GEMS/Food Contaminants database heavy-metal exportsGEMS/Food Contamination Monitoring and Assessment ProgrammeRead source →}