Heavy metals in Peach

Peach overview

Peach in the HMI library has 283 reported results for lead, cadmium, total arsenic, inorganic arsenic, dimethylarsinic acid, total mercury, nickel, chromium, aluminium, tin, antimony, uranium, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, V, Se, Ba and Mo from 21 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 →3Jane Houlihan, Charlotte Brody · 2019What’s in My Baby’s Food? A National Investigation Finds 95 Percent of Baby Foods Tested Contain Toxic Chemicals That Lower Babies’ IQ, Including Arsenic and LeadHealthy Babies Bright FuturesRead source →4Lee J, Hwang I, Park YS, Lee DY · 2023Occurrence and health risk assessment of antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, nickel, and lead in fresh fruits consumed in South KoreaApplied Biological ChemistryRead source →5U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2024Analytical Results for Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium, and Mercury in Food Intended for Babies and Young Children - TEP (FY2009-FY2024)FDA analytical results tableRead source →6Volpe MG, Nazzaro M, Coppola R, Rapuano F, Aquino RP · 2012Determination and assessments of selected heavy metals in eye shadow cosmeticsMicrochemical JournalRead source →} WHO GEMS/Food submissions reported lead in peach, as sold from 2,188 results in 4 reporting regions, with subgroup medians from 2.4 to 720 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, peach, frozen had a median lead result below 4 µg/kg across 27 composites from 2017–2020.^{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 41.2 µg/kg (Lee et al. 2023) to 2,750 µg/kg (Volpe et al. 2012).^{4Lee J, Hwang I, Park YS, Lee DY · 2023Occurrence and health risk assessment of antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, nickel, and lead in fresh fruits consumed in South KoreaApplied Biological ChemistryRead source →6Volpe MG, Nazzaro M, Coppola R, Rapuano F, Aquino RP · 2012Determination and assessments of selected heavy metals in eye shadow cosmeticsMicrochemical JournalRead source →} For cadmium, 2 studies on a dry-weight basis reported means and medians from 20 µg/kg (Elbagermi et al. 2012) to 50.7 µg/kg (Rahim et al. 2020).^{7Elbagermi MA, Edwards HGM, Alajtal AI · 2012Monitoring of Heavy Metal Content in Fruits and Vegetables Collected from Production and Market Sites in the Misurata Area of LibyaISRN Analytical ChemistryRead source →8Rahim M, Saqib NU, Wahid F, Khan N, Alrawi LI · 2020Analysis of Toxic Heavy Metal Content of the Most Widely Consumed FruitsJournal of Physical ScienceRead source →}

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

What counts as peach

This page covers peach in 6 forms kept separate in every comparison: peach, as sold (217 results), peach, canned (30 results), peach, juice (15 results), peach, dried (7 results), peach, frozen (7 results) and peach, peel or outer layer (7 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 →3Jane Houlihan, Charlotte Brody · 2019What’s in My Baby’s Food? A National Investigation Finds 95 Percent of Baby Foods Tested Contain Toxic Chemicals That Lower Babies’ IQ, Including Arsenic and LeadHealthy Babies Bright FuturesRead source →4Lee J, Hwang I, Park YS, Lee DY · 2023Occurrence and health risk assessment of antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, nickel, and lead in fresh fruits consumed in South KoreaApplied Biological ChemistryRead source →5U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2024Analytical Results for Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium, and Mercury in Food Intended for Babies and Young Children - TEP (FY2009-FY2024)FDA analytical results tableRead source →6Volpe MG, Nazzaro M, Coppola R, Rapuano F, Aquino RP · 2012Determination and assessments of selected heavy metals in eye shadow cosmeticsMicrochemical JournalRead source →}

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 peach

The table holds every extracted peach result: one row for each statistic a source reports for a form, group and metal, 283 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 →3Jane Houlihan, Charlotte Brody · 2019What’s in My Baby’s Food? A National Investigation Finds 95 Percent of Baby Foods Tested Contain Toxic Chemicals That Lower Babies’ IQ, Including Arsenic and LeadHealthy Babies Bright FuturesRead source →4Lee J, Hwang I, Park YS, Lee DY · 2023Occurrence and health risk assessment of antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, nickel, and lead in fresh fruits consumed in South KoreaApplied Biological ChemistryRead source →5U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2024Analytical Results for Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium, and Mercury in Food Intended for Babies and Young Children - TEP (FY2009-FY2024)FDA analytical results tableRead source →6Volpe MG, Nazzaro M, Coppola R, Rapuano F, Aquino RP · 2012Determination and assessments of selected heavy metals in eye shadow cosmeticsMicrochemical JournalRead 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 →}

51 rows can be rated against an HMI reference for the same form and basis, 23 rows have a direct same-study comparison, and the rest stay unrated with the reason recorded. 39 values from 2 sources failed a check against their own source and are shown but not compared.^{8Rahim M, Saqib NU, Wahid F, Khan N, Alrawi LI · 2020Analysis of Toxic Heavy Metal Content of the Most Widely Consumed FruitsJournal of Physical ScienceRead source →9Mohammad Rezaei, Yousef Fakhri, Maryam Abtahi, Majid Keramati, Gholamreza Ghasemi, Mohammad H. Moradi, Hamed Shariatifar, Mahsa Mousavi Khaneghah · 2020Essential elements in the different type of fruits, soil and water samples collected from Markazi province, Iran: a health risk assessment studyQuality Assurance and Safety of Crops & FoodsRead source →}