Potatoes
Stub page. Contamination profile populates on the next ingest wave. Potatoes are identified by EFSA Cd 2009 as one of the population-level dietary cadmium contributors, placed in a joint “starchy roots and potatoes” category alongside other root vegetables. The commodity is distinct from the root-vegetables-for-babies category that the FDA CTZ Pb guidance treats under a dedicated 20 ppb action level.
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 is populated by the per-metal body sections below where they exist; an automated Phase 3 enrichment will lift attributions into this table.
| Analyte | Coverage | Typical (ppb) | p95 (ppb) | Confidence | Key sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pb | n=1 (in progress) | — | — | — | — |
| Cd | n=1 (in progress) | — | — | — | — |
| iAs | data gap | — | — | — | — |
| tAs | n=1 (in progress) | — | — | — | — |
| tHg | n=1 (in progress) | — | — | — | — |
| Ni | n=1 (in progress) | — | — | — | — |
| Al | data gap | — | — | — | — |
| Cr | n=1 (in progress) | — | — | — | — |
| Sn | data gap | — | — | — | — |
| U | n=1 (in progress) | — | — | — | — |
Why this commodity accumulates cadmium
Potatoes are tubers that form and mature in direct soil contact, with cadmium uptake driven by soil cadmium concentration, soil pH, and tuber surface area. Cadmium concentrations tend to be modestly higher in potato peel than in potato flesh, though the gradient is less pronounced than for some other root-crop commodities. Regional variation in finished-potato cadmium reflects soil cadmium in the growing region, with phosphate-fertilizer-amended soils and hotspot areas producing elevated potato cadmium.
Ranges by source, region, and variety
Pending ingest of commodity-level occurrence data. EFSA 2009 Table 1 reports a mean cadmium concentration in potatoes of 0.021 mg/kg across European samples, which is at the lower end of the starchy-roots category mean but still meaningful in population-exposure terms given high consumption volume.
Processing effects
Pending. Peeling removes a modest fraction of total potato cadmium because cadmium is distributed through the tuber rather than concentrated in the surface layer; peel-containing products (potato-skin-heavy dishes, processed products retaining peel) carry somewhat more cadmium than peeled-flesh products. Frying, baking, and boiling do not remove cadmium from the food.
Ingredient-derivative risk
Potato-derived products (potato starch, potato flakes, dehydrated potato) inherit the cadmium concentration of the source potatoes. Potato starch, being isolated from flesh rather than from peel, tends to carry cadmium at the flesh-only concentration and therefore slightly below the whole-potato mean.
Mitigation options
Pending. Cultivar selection, soil management, and peeling are the primary mitigation levers. Note that peeling is in tension with the nutrient-retention rationale that keeps potato skin on in many modern preparations.
Other metals of concern
Some metals not listed in this section because no ingested source yet covers their commodity-level concern; those will populate when the corresponding source pages are ingested.
- Pb: the FDA Closer to Zero 20 ppb Pb action level for single-ingredient root vegetables in processed baby food covers carrots and sweet potatoes specifically (FDA CTZ Pb 2025; see fda-ctz-Pb-rootveg-20ppb); white potatoes are not in the targeted category but the framing is adjacent.
- iAs: not a top staple-iAs contributor (rice dominates, FDA iAs 2020). See arsenic.
Regulatory limits that apply
- codex-cadmium-mls — Codex matrix-level Cd ML for potatoes and starchy roots (pending ingest of CXS 193-1995).
- eu-2023-915-cadmium and eu2023-contaminants-maximum-levels — EU maximum levels for root and tuber vegetables are 0.10 mg/kg (100 ug/kg) for Cd and 0.10 mg/kg (100 ug/kg) for Pb; for potatoes, the maximum levels apply to peeled potatoes after washing and edible-part separation.
- fda-ctz-Pb-rootveg-20ppb — FDA CTZ 20 ppb lead action level for single-ingredient root vegetables in processed baby food covers carrots and sweet potatoes specifically and does not apply to potatoes, but the adjacent framing is worth noting for any future Cd analogue.
FDA TDS FY2018-FY2020 Evidence
FDA’s FY2018-FY2020 Total Diet Study dataset includes this page’s routed matrix as TDS Food 136, “Potato, peeled, boiled.” The normalized row-level data is stored in data/evidence/fda_tds_fy2018_2020_element_results_samples.csv, with per-food/per-analyte summaries in data/evidence/fda_tds_fy2018_2020_summary_by_food_analyte.csv. Concentrations are retained as FDA reported them, with reporting limits preserved separately; reported zeroes are not rewritten as <LOD without a source-specific rule. fda2022-tds-elements-fy2018-fy2020
FDA TDS FY2018-FY2020 Occurrence Values
FDA Total Diet Study FY2018-FY2020 reports prepared/composite-food concentration distributions for this ingredient as TDS food “Potato, peeled, boiled” (fda2022-tds-elements-fy2018-fy2020). Values are in ppb-equivalent on the basis FDA reported. The full sample-level data are stored in data/evidence/fda_tds_fy2018_2020_element_results_samples.csv; per-analyte distributions in data/evidence/fda_tds_fy2018_2020_summary_by_food_analyte.csv. These distributions count as one source under persistent-wiki-ingest-rule synthesis discipline; numerical values stay in body scratch until a second independent source is integrated.
| Metal | n | min | p10 | p50 | p90 | p95 | max | Schema |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cd | 27 | 13 | 15 | 25 | 34 | 37.7 | 42 | in profile |
| Cr | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 63 | in profile |
| Ni | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 48 | 79.4 | 91 | in profile |
| Pb | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | in profile |
| U | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | in profile |
| tAs | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.66 | 4.8 | in profile |
| tHg | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | in profile |
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 | Kumar et al. 2024. High Arsenic Contamination in the Breast Milk of Mothers Inhabiting the Gangetic Plains of Bihar: A Major Health Risk to Infants, Environmental Health 23(1) | 2024 | Peer-reviewed | tAs and iAs in breast milk, child urine, drinking water, rice, wheat, and potato from 11 arsenic-affected Bihar districts (n=513 women); potatoes included as a dietary arsenic-exposure pathway in a high-groundwater-arsenic region |
| 2 | Romero-Crespo et al. 2023. Heavy metals in soils and crops in a mining area of Ecuador, Environmental Geochemistry and Health | 2023 | Peer-reviewed | As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn in soils and food crops (potato, leafy vegetables, corn) adjacent to active mining operations in Ecuador; mining-related soil contamination transfer into potato edible portions, with As and Pb showing the most pronounced elevations |
| 3 | FDA 2022. FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical Results, FDA Total Diet Study | 2022 | Government dataset | Pb, Cd, tAs, iAs, tHg, Ni, and Cr in baked potato (with peel) and potato chips across 29,148 analytical rows from 90 US prepared TDS foods (FY2018–2020); potato chips ranked highest for Cd among TDS foods at P95 190 ppb |
| 4 | Chekri et al. 2019. Trace element contents in foods from the first French Total Diet Study on infants and toddlers, Journal of Food Composition and Analysis | 2019 | Peer-reviewed | Al, Sb, tAs, Cd, Cr, Ni, and Sn in 291 French infant and toddler foods including potato-containing vegetable meals, soups, and purees; occurrence data for potato-based baby food matrices across the first French infant TDS |
| 5 | Nordberg et al. 2015. Cadmium (Chapter 32), in Handbook on the Toxicology of Metals, Fourth Edition, Volume II: Specific Metals, Academic Press / Elsevier, Amsterdam | 2015 | Textbook chapter | Canonical textbook chapter on Cd toxicology covering toxicokinetics, renal tubular endpoint, carcinogenicity, and risk assessment, with food occurrence data citing potatoes and root vegetables as significant Cd contributors in European diets |
| 6 | EFSA 2009. Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain on a request from the European Commission on cadmium in food, The EFSA Journal | 2009 | Government report | EFSA CONTAM Cd opinion establishing the EU TWI of 2.5 µg/kg bw/week; identifies potatoes as a major absolute dietary Cd contributor in Europe despite moderate concentrations, due to high consumption volumes |
| 7 | California Office of Environmental 1996. Evidence on the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicity of Cadmium, California Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment | 1996 | Government report | California OEHHA hazard identification for Cd reproductive and developmental toxicity, providing the scientific basis for the Proposition 65 reproductive-toxicity listing of Cd (effective 1997); potatoes and root vegetables cited as dietary Cd exposure sources underpinning the exposure assessment context |
| 8 | Flyvholm et al. 1984. Nickel Content of Food and Estimation of Dietary Intake, Zeitschrift für Lebensmittel-Untersuchung und -Forschung 179(6):427-431 | 1984 | Peer-reviewed | Ni concentrations in 2,221 food samples from the Danish National Food Institute literature survey (AAS/PIXE, 1969–1982), reporting Ni content of potatoes and estimating contribution to total dietary Ni intake via load factor analysis in the Danish average diet model |