Potatoes

Overview

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 shows the top 2-3 contributing sources by year and sample size, with numbered wikilink aliases.

Synthesis basis and censoring treatment

The FDA Total Diet Study reported lead below its 4 ppb reporting limit and total mercury below its 1 ppb reporting limit in all 27 peeled-boiled-potato composites, and total chromium below its 50 ppb reporting limit in 26 of 27 composites with a single composite at 63 ppb (FDA 2022). The former lead profile of [0,0] carried high confidence, which made the measured-zero coding especially indefensible. Lower-limit A-tier data clearly detect potato-tuber lead: the UK Nafferton trials reported 14 to 31 ppb fresh weight (Rempelos et al. 2023) and the German BfR MEAL vegetable group about 14 ppb (Fechner et al. 2022), while the New Zealand survey found Solanum lead below the detection limit (Dearing et al. 2025).

The synthesized central ranges are lead 0 to 20 ppb, total mercury 0 to 1 ppb, and total chromium 0 to 35 ppb, on a peeled-boiled as-consumed fresh-weight basis. Lead is set at medium confidence because the detected UK and German values and the censored US and NZ non-detects agree on a low but non-zero band. The single FDA chromium composite at 63 ppb sits just above the reporting limit and is reflected in the tail; the Jiaozuo survey confirms real sub-limit chromium at a mean of 32 ppb fresh weight (Wu 2024). Mining-adjacent and wastewater surveys are tail context only.

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 Closer to Zero — 20 ppb Lead Action Level for Single-Ingredient Root Vegetables (Baby Food)); 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 Alimentarius — Maximum Levels for Cadmium in Food — Codex matrix-level Cd ML for potatoes and starchy roots (pending ingest of CXS 193-1995).
• Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915 cadmium maximum levels and EU Regulation 2023/915 maximum levels for contaminants in food — 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 Closer to Zero — 20 ppb Lead Action Level for Single-Ingredient Root Vegetables (Baby Food) — 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. FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical Results

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” (FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical Results). 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.

References

Works cited in this page’s text, in first-appearance order. This is not the full corpus for this page; it is only what the prose above draws on. The complete set of sources is listed under Sources below. Each title links to its source record, which carries the ingest receipt, the extracted values, and the file hash of the document it was built from.

1. Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain on a request from the European Commission on cadmium in foodEFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) · The EFSA Journal · 2009 · doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2009.980Government
2. FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical ResultsU.S. Food and Drug Administration · FDA Total Diet Study · 2022 · www.fda.govDataset
3. Effect of Climatic Conditions, and Agronomic Practices Used in Organic and Conventional Crop Production on Yield and Nutritional Composition Parameters in Potato, Cabbage, Lettuce and Onion; Results from the Long-Term NFSC-TrialsLeonidas Rempelos, Marcin Baranski, Enas Khalid Sufar, Jenny Gilroy, Peter Shotton, Halima Leifert, et al. · Agronomy · 2023 · doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13051225Review
4. Results 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 foodsFechner C, Hackethal C, Höpfner T, Dietrich J, Bloch D, Lindtner O, et al. · Food Chemistry: X · 2022 · doi.org/10.1016/j.fochx.2022.100326Review
5. Assessment of Heavy Metals in Organic and Non-Organic Vegetables Post Severe Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle: A cross-sectional comparative analysisDearing C, Ye Z, and Robertshaw G · F1000Research · 2025 · doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.175538.1Review
6. Contamination of Heavy Metal(Loid)S in Cereals, Vegetables, and Legumes Purchased from Local Markets of Jiaozuo, China and The Associated Health Risk AssessmentWu Z · International Journal of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, 2(1): 180-200 · 2024 · doi.org/10.62051/10.62051/ijnres.v2n1.21Review
7. Action Levels for Lead in Processed Food Intended for Babies and Young Children: Guidance for IndustryU.S. Food and Drug Administration · U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, Human Foods Program · 2025 · www.fda.govGuidance
8. Inorganic Arsenic in Rice Cereals for Infants: Action Level; Guidance for IndustryU.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2020 · www.fda.govGovernment

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]*.

Update history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and 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.