Heavy metals in Pasta

Pasta overview

Pasta in the HMI library has 949 reported results for lead, cadmium, total arsenic, inorganic arsenic, dimethylarsinic acid, monomethylarsonic acid, total mercury, nickel, chromium, aluminium, tin, antimony, uranium, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, V, Se, B, Ba, Ca, Ga, K, Mg, Mo, Na, P, Rb, S, Sr, Ti and Tl from 29 sources.^{1World Health Organization · 2026GEMS/Food Contaminants database heavy-metal exportsGEMS/Food Contamination Monitoring and Assessment ProgrammeRead source →2U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2022FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical ResultsFDA Total Diet StudyRead source →3Ihedioha JN, Atiatah IM, Ekere NR, Asegbeloyin JN · 2018Levels of Heavy Metals in Pasta Available in the Nigerian Market: Assessing the Human Health ImplicationsJournal of Chemical Health Risks 8(2) (2018) 95-105Read source →4Marín S, Pardo O, Sánchez A, Sanchis Y, Vélez D, Devesa V, Font G, Yusà V · 2018Assessment of metal levels in foodstuffs from the Region of Valencia (Spain)Toxicology Reports 5 (2018) 654-670Read source →5Pourimani R, Feyzi M, Sadeghi H, Mortazavi-Shahroudi SM · 2026Health risk assessment of heavy metals in Iranian cereal products using ICP-AES and a hybrid machine learning frameworkScientific Reports (2026), Article in PressRead source →6Shaikh U, Samant R · 2025Quantitative Determination of Heavy Metals in Ready to Eat Food ProductsInternational Journal for Multidisciplinary Research (IJFMR) 7(6), November-December 2025Read source →} WHO GEMS/Food submissions reported lead in pasta, as sold from 119 results in 3 reporting regions, with subgroup medians from 2.8 to 12.3 µg/kg.^{1World Health Organization · 2026GEMS/Food Contaminants database heavy-metal exportsGEMS/Food Contamination Monitoring and Assessment ProgrammeRead source →} In the US Total Diet Study, pasta, cooked had a median lead result below 4 µg/kg across 3 composites from 2018–2020.^{2U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2022FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical ResultsFDA Total Diet StudyRead source →}

Across 2 other studies of ordinary farms and markets, reported lead means and medians on an as-sold or fresh-weight basis ranged from 54 µg/kg (Marín et al. 2018) to 608 µg/kg (Ihedioha et al. 2018).^{3Ihedioha JN, Atiatah IM, Ekere NR, Asegbeloyin JN · 2018Levels of Heavy Metals in Pasta Available in the Nigerian Market: Assessing the Human Health ImplicationsJournal of Chemical Health Risks 8(2) (2018) 95-105Read source →4Marín S, Pardo O, Sánchez A, Sanchis Y, Vélez D, Devesa V, Font G, Yusà V · 2018Assessment of metal levels in foodstuffs from the Region of Valencia (Spain)Toxicology Reports 5 (2018) 654-670Read source →} For cadmium, 4 studies on an as-sold or fresh-weight basis reported means and medians from 2 µg/kg (Ihedioha et al. 2018) to 263 µg/kg (Ihedioha et al. 2018).^{3Ihedioha JN, Atiatah IM, Ekere NR, Asegbeloyin JN · 2018Levels of Heavy Metals in Pasta Available in the Nigerian Market: Assessing the Human Health ImplicationsJournal of Chemical Health Risks 8(2) (2018) 95-105Read source →} Higher results came from contaminated or exposed settings rather than ordinary supply. Pasta, as sold from retail brand B had Zn higher at 5,600 µg/kg, against 900 µg/kg for retail brand A in the same study.^{6Shaikh U, Samant R · 2025Quantitative Determination of Heavy Metals in Ready to Eat Food ProductsInternational Journal for Multidisciplinary Research (IJFMR) 7(6), November-December 2025Read source →}

For a buyer the practical points are the form bought, the basis a result is reported on, where the pasta came from and the laboratory’s reporting limit. Testing finds contamination but does not remove it.

What counts as pasta

This page covers pasta in 3 forms kept separate in every comparison: pasta, as sold (885 results), pasta, cooked (48 results) and pasta, canned (16 results).^{1World Health Organization · 2026GEMS/Food Contaminants database heavy-metal exportsGEMS/Food Contamination Monitoring and Assessment ProgrammeRead source →2U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2022FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical ResultsFDA Total Diet StudyRead source →3Ihedioha JN, Atiatah IM, Ekere NR, Asegbeloyin JN · 2018Levels of Heavy Metals in Pasta Available in the Nigerian Market: Assessing the Human Health ImplicationsJournal of Chemical Health Risks 8(2) (2018) 95-105Read source →4Marín S, Pardo O, Sánchez A, Sanchis Y, Vélez D, Devesa V, Font G, Yusà V · 2018Assessment of metal levels in foodstuffs from the Region of Valencia (Spain)Toxicology Reports 5 (2018) 654-670Read source →5Pourimani R, Feyzi M, Sadeghi H, Mortazavi-Shahroudi SM · 2026Health risk assessment of heavy metals in Iranian cereal products using ICP-AES and a hybrid machine learning frameworkScientific Reports (2026), Article in PressRead source →6Shaikh U, Samant R · 2025Quantitative Determination of Heavy Metals in Ready to Eat Food ProductsInternational Journal for Multidisciplinary Research (IJFMR) 7(6), November-December 2025Read source →} Foods made from pasta that have their own pages, such as pasta sauce and whole wheat pasta, are covered there.

Results stay on the basis each source reports: as sold or fresh weight, dry weight, or unstated. Dry-weight, as-sold and unstated results are never pooled, and no moisture conversion is applied.

Heavy metal contamination profile of pasta

The table holds every extracted pasta result: one row for each statistic a source reports for a form, group and metal, 949 rows in all, grouped by metal and form; percentiles, ranges and maxima for the same samples as a mean or median are shown on that row.^{1World Health Organization · 2026GEMS/Food Contaminants database heavy-metal exportsGEMS/Food Contamination Monitoring and Assessment ProgrammeRead source →2U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2022FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical ResultsFDA Total Diet StudyRead source →3Ihedioha JN, Atiatah IM, Ekere NR, Asegbeloyin JN · 2018Levels of Heavy Metals in Pasta Available in the Nigerian Market: Assessing the Human Health ImplicationsJournal of Chemical Health Risks 8(2) (2018) 95-105Read source →4Marín S, Pardo O, Sánchez A, Sanchis Y, Vélez D, Devesa V, Font G, Yusà V · 2018Assessment of metal levels in foodstuffs from the Region of Valencia (Spain)Toxicology Reports 5 (2018) 654-670Read source →5Pourimani R, Feyzi M, Sadeghi H, Mortazavi-Shahroudi SM · 2026Health risk assessment of heavy metals in Iranian cereal products using ICP-AES and a hybrid machine learning frameworkScientific Reports (2026), Article in PressRead source →6Shaikh U, Samant R · 2025Quantitative Determination of Heavy Metals in Ready to Eat Food ProductsInternational Journal for Multidisciplinary Research (IJFMR) 7(6), November-December 2025Read source →} Monitoring medians are HMI calculations from individual submissions; non-detects remain intervals between zero and the reporting limit and are never read as zero.^{1World Health Organization · 2026GEMS/Food Contaminants database heavy-metal exportsGEMS/Food Contamination Monitoring and Assessment ProgrammeRead source →}

553 rows can be rated against an HMI reference for the same form and basis, 11 rows have a direct same-study comparison, and the rest stay unrated with the reason recorded. 23 values from 4 sources failed a check against their own source and are shown but not compared.^{4Marín S, Pardo O, Sánchez A, Sanchis Y, Vélez D, Devesa V, Font G, Yusà V · 2018Assessment of metal levels in foodstuffs from the Region of Valencia (Spain)Toxicology Reports 5 (2018) 654-670Read source →6Shaikh U, Samant R · 2025Quantitative Determination of Heavy Metals in Ready to Eat Food ProductsInternational Journal for Multidisciplinary Research (IJFMR) 7(6), November-December 2025Read source →7Marzabadi MA, Khalili H, Pourimani R, Khalili M · 2026Probabilistic cancer risk assessment from heavy metal exposure in iranian rice and pasta: a novel hybrid framework integrating INAA, ICP-AES, and ensemble machine learningScientific Reports (2026), article in press (accepted manuscript)Read source →8Jakkielska D, Frankowski M, Kurzyca I, Ziola-Frankowska A · 2023Risk profiling of exposures to potentially toxic metals PTM(s) through noodles consumption. A case study of human health risk assessmentActa Universitatis Cibiniensis Series E: Food TechnologyRead source →}