Heavy metals in Spinach

Spinach overview

Cadmium is the metal that decides most spinach questions.^{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 →7EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) · 2009Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain on a request from the European Commission on cadmium in foodThe EFSA JournalRead source →} Spinach takes cadmium up from soil and moves it into the leaf, and the large monitoring datasets agree that ordinary retail spinach carries tens to a few hundred micrograms per kilogram on a fresh-weight basis: a median of 40 µg/kg across 2,077 randomly sampled European submissions to WHO GEMS/Food, 125 µg/kg in submissions from the Americas and 200 µg/kg in US Total Diet Study composites from 2018 to 2020.^{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 →} EU monitoring from 2003 to 2007 summarised by EFSA gave a median of 50 µg/kg and a mean of 61.5 µg/kg, against 23.1 µg/kg for other leafy vegetables.^{7EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) · 2009Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain on a request from the European Commission on cadmium in foodThe EFSA JournalRead source →} Against the EU maximum of 0.20 mg/kg for spinach, 105 of 2,262 raw spinach results in GEMS/Food and 10 of 27 US market composites were above the limit.^{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 →3European 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 →}

Lead, arsenic and mercury are usually low in monitored retail spinach.^{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 →5Veronica Martin-Leon, Carmen Rubio, Angel Rodriguez-Hernandez, Manuel Zumbado, Andrea Acosta-Dacal, Luis Alberto Henriquez-Hernandez, Luis D. Boada, Maria del Mar Travieso-Aja, Octavio P. Luzardo · 2023Evaluation of essential, toxic and potentially toxic elements in leafy vegetables grown in the Canary IslandsToxicsRead source →} US composites had a lead median of 6.2 µg/kg and a total-arsenic median of 5.9 µg/kg, and mercury was detected in 3 of 27; European and Canary Islands supermarket spinach showed the same picture, with lead medians of 13–22 µg/kg and mercury mostly below detection.^{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 →5Veronica Martin-Leon, Carmen Rubio, Angel Rodriguez-Hernandez, Manuel Zumbado, Andrea Acosta-Dacal, Luis Alberto Henriquez-Hernandez, Luis D. Boada, Maria del Mar Travieso-Aja, Octavio P. Luzardo · 2023Evaluation of essential, toxic and potentially toxic elements in leafy vegetables grown in the Canary IslandsToxicsRead source →} Spinach is, however, rich in aluminium, around 41,000 µg/kg in Canary Islands and Malaysian market samples.^{5Veronica Martin-Leon, Carmen Rubio, Angel Rodriguez-Hernandez, Manuel Zumbado, Andrea Acosta-Dacal, Luis Alberto Henriquez-Hernandez, Luis D. Boada, Maria del Mar Travieso-Aja, Octavio P. Luzardo · 2023Evaluation of essential, toxic and potentially toxic elements in leafy vegetables grown in the Canary IslandsToxicsRead source →8See SN, Pak Dek MS, Sanny M, Shukri R, Ramli NS · 2025Heavy Metals Assessment in Selected Leafy Vegetables from Selangor, MalaysiaPertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural ScienceRead source →}

The highest values in the library come from fields irrigated with sewage or industrial wastewater and from sites near a battery factory or industrial zones, where spinach carried several milligrams of cadmium, lead or nickel per kilogram.^{4Naser HM, Rahman MZ, Sultana S, Quddus MA, Hossain MA · 2018Heavy metal accumulation in leafy vegetables grown in industrial areas under varying levels of pollutionBangladesh Journal of Agricultural ResearchRead source →9Jiang Y, Ma J, Ruan X · 2020Compound health risk assessment of cumulative heavy metal exposure: A case study of a village near a battery factory in Henan Province, ChinaEnvironmental Science: Processes & ImpactsRead source →10Muhammad Abubakar, Basit Haider, Hadeeqa Arshad, Tufail Shah, Ameer Khan, Hummera Nawaz, Maryam Batool · 2025Effects of sewage water irrigation on heavy metals accumulation in vegetables in peri-urban areas of Faisalabad, PakistanAgricultural Research Reports 3(1):46–57Read source →} Many of those studies report dry weight or do not state the basis, so they cannot be ranked against fresh-weight market data, but within single studies the polluted fields were consistently higher than cleaner comparison fields.^{4Naser HM, Rahman MZ, Sultana S, Quddus MA, Hossain MA · 2018Heavy metal accumulation in leafy vegetables grown in industrial areas under varying levels of pollutionBangladesh Journal of Agricultural ResearchRead source →6Seyfferth AL, Limmer MA, Runkle BRK, Chaney RL · 2024Mitigating Toxic Metal Exposure Through Leafy Greens: A Comprehensive Review Contrasting Cadmium and Lead in SpinachGeoHealthRead source →11INDIAN LEAFY VEGETABLES AND QUANTIFICATION OF CONSUMER HEALTH RISK DUE TO THEIR DIETARY INTAKE SHAIL KULSHRESTHA Department of Chemistry, D. B. S. (P. G.) College, Dehradun, India ( · 2022BIO-ACCUMULATION OF HEAVY METALS IN SOME NORTHPeer-reviewed articleRead source →} For a buyer the supported priorities are the growing site and its irrigation water, then lot results for cadmium and lead on a fresh-weight basis; packaging form (fresh, frozen or canned) does not reliably change cadmium.^{1World Health Organization · 2026GEMS/Food Contaminants database heavy-metal exportsGEMS/Food Contamination Monitoring and Assessment ProgrammeRead source →3European 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 →4Naser HM, Rahman MZ, Sultana S, Quddus MA, Hossain MA · 2018Heavy metal accumulation in leafy vegetables grown in industrial areas under varying levels of pollutionBangladesh Journal of Agricultural ResearchRead source →}

Spinach and its preparations

This page covers spinach, Spinacia oleracea: raw leaves, baby spinach, cooked, frozen and canned spinach and spinach purée used as an ingredient, each kept as its own material.^{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 →12U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and Reform, Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy · 2021Baby Foods Are Tainted with Dangerous Levels of Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium, and MercuryStaff ReportRead source →} Several plants are also sold as spinach but are different species: amaranth (African, red or Chinese spinach), water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica) and Malabar or Indian spinach (Basella).^{13Centre for Food Safety (Hong Kong) · 2013The First Hong Kong Total Diet Study: Metallic ContaminantsCentre for Food Safety, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative RegionRead source →14Adebayo RK, Hassan UF, Adamu HM, Hassan HF, Baba H, Ajiya DA · 2020Levels of heavy metals and their health risk assessment from wastewater irrigated spinach in railway quarters, Bauchi, Bauchi state, NigeriaInternational Journal of Advanced Chemistry ResearchRead source →15Hossain AMMM, Islam MS, Mamun MM, Al-Jonaed HM, Imran M, Rahman MH, Kazi MAI, Elahi SF · 2016Environmental surveillance of commonly-grown vegetables for investigating potential lead and chromium contamination intensification in BangladeshSpringerPlusRead source →} Results for those plants, including the GEMS/Food submissions filed under the spinach code whose local names show water spinach, Chinese spinach or a mustard-green dish, are not counted here.^{1World Health Organization · 2026GEMS/Food Contaminants database heavy-metal exportsGEMS/Food Contamination Monitoring and Assessment ProgrammeRead source →}

The basis of a result matters as much as the form. Fresh spinach is about 93% water, so a dry-weight concentration is roughly 14 times the fresh-weight value for the same leaves; the page never converts between the two, and results whose basis is not stated stay separate.^{6Seyfferth AL, Limmer MA, Runkle BRK, Chaney RL · 2024Mitigating Toxic Metal Exposure Through Leafy Greens: A Comprehensive Review Contrasting Cadmium and Lead in SpinachGeoHealthRead source →} Some field studies from Nigeria and South Asia name the crop only as spinach; where a paper identifies the plant as an amaranth it is excluded, and the remaining reports are taken at their word.^{14Adebayo RK, Hassan UF, Adamu HM, Hassan HF, Baba H, Ajiya DA · 2020Levels of heavy metals and their health risk assessment from wastewater irrigated spinach in railway quarters, Bauchi, Bauchi state, NigeriaInternational Journal of Advanced Chemistry ResearchRead source →16Fatai MI, Ibrahim M, Ibrahim MA, Ndriza BJ, Matthew EO, Saheed MB, Dayo UO · 2024Concentration and Health Risk Assessment of Selected Heavy Metals (HMs) in African spinach (Amaranthus hybridus) and Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) Grown around Ashaka Community, Gombe State, NigeriaJournal of Chemistry and Nutritional BiochemistryRead source →17Sharma A, Katnoria J K, Nagpal A K · 2016Heavy metals in vegetables: screening health risks involved in cultivation along wastewater drain and irrigating with wastewaterSpringerPlusRead source →} Mixed baby foods, creamed spinach, spinach tortillas and snacks that contain spinach are outside this scope, because their results cannot be attributed to the leaf.^{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 →18Charles A. Barber, Marc Boyer, Jake A. Carter, Patrick J. Gray, Jennifer Fong Sam, Mesay M. Wolle · 2025Toxic elements in baby and young children’s foods in the US and correlation to ingredientsFood Additives & Contaminants: Part BRead source →}

Heavy metal contamination profile of spinach

The table holds every spinach result extracted from 37 sampling families: WHO GEMS/Food submissions summarised by WHO region, form and sampling type, the US and Hong Kong total diet studies, EU monitoring summarised by EFSA, and every market, farm, wastewater-site and field-trial study in the library.^{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 →5Veronica Martin-Leon, Carmen Rubio, Angel Rodriguez-Hernandez, Manuel Zumbado, Andrea Acosta-Dacal, Luis Alberto Henriquez-Hernandez, Luis D. Boada, Maria del Mar Travieso-Aja, Octavio P. Luzardo · 2023Evaluation of essential, toxic and potentially toxic elements in leafy vegetables grown in the Canary IslandsToxicsRead source →7EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) · 2009Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain on a request from the European Commission on cadmium in foodThe EFSA JournalRead source →13Centre for Food Safety (Hong Kong) · 2013The First Hong Kong Total Diet Study: Metallic ContaminantsCentre for Food Safety, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative RegionRead source →} Each row is one statistic for one form, group and metal on its stated basis; ratings place a mean, median or sample value against a pooled reference for the same form and basis built from retail, monitoring and ordinary farm samples.^{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 →19Sultana R, Tanvir RU, Hussain KA, Chamon AS, Mondol MN · 2022Heavy Metals in Commonly Consumed Root and Leafy Vegetables in Dhaka City, Bangladesh, and Assessment of Associated Public Health RisksEnvironmental Systems ResearchRead source →}

Retail cadmium spans about one order of magnitude.^{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 →5Veronica Martin-Leon, Carmen Rubio, Angel Rodriguez-Hernandez, Manuel Zumbado, Andrea Acosta-Dacal, Luis Alberto Henriquez-Hernandez, Luis D. Boada, Maria del Mar Travieso-Aja, Octavio P. Luzardo · 2023Evaluation of essential, toxic and potentially toxic elements in leafy vegetables grown in the Canary IslandsToxicsRead source →} In GEMS/Food the middle half of randomly sampled European raw spinach lay between about 10 and 79 µg/kg, against 65–281 µg/kg for the Americas; US composites ranged from 100 to 400 µg/kg, and Gran Canaria supermarket spinach had a median of 21.5 µg/kg.^{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 →5Veronica Martin-Leon, Carmen Rubio, Angel Rodriguez-Hernandez, Manuel Zumbado, Andrea Acosta-Dacal, Luis Alberto Henriquez-Hernandez, Luis D. Boada, Maria del Mar Travieso-Aja, Octavio P. Luzardo · 2023Evaluation of essential, toxic and potentially toxic elements in leafy vegetables grown in the Canary IslandsToxicsRead source →} Lead was below reporting limits in about a third of European results, and the US composites ranged from below 4 to 18 µg/kg.^{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 →}

Non-detects stay as intervals from zero to 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 →2U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2022FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical ResultsFDA Total Diet StudyRead source →} Fourteen rows that fail a check against their own paper, for example lead values below the paper’s own detection limit in a Dhaka market study and a cadmium standard deviation eleven times its mean in an Iranian field study, are shown with the reason and not compared.^{19Sultana R, Tanvir RU, Hussain KA, Chamon AS, Mondol MN · 2022Heavy Metals in Commonly Consumed Root and Leafy Vegetables in Dhaka City, Bangladesh, and Assessment of Associated Public Health RisksEnvironmental Systems ResearchRead source →20Abdolahpour Alamdari H, Sleman Ali H, Sadighara P, Jahed Khaniki G, Shahsavanpoor Landeh K, Dehghani MH · 2023The health risk assessment of heavy metals in vegetables grown in Babol city, IranInternational Archives of Health SciencesRead source →21Altunay N, Hazer B, Lanjwani MF, Tuzen M · 2023Ultra-Sensitive Determination of Cadmium in Food and Water by Flame-AAS after a New Polyvinyl Benzyl Xanthate as an Adsorbent Based Vortex Assisted Dispersive Solid-Phase Microextraction: Multivariate OptimizationFoods 2023, 12, 3620Read source →} Values read from a figure rather than printed are labelled and not compared.^{17Sharma A, Katnoria J K, Nagpal A K · 2016Heavy metals in vegetables: screening health risks involved in cultivation along wastewater drain and irrigating with wastewaterSpringerPlusRead source →22Pal Jitender, Bishnoi Mukal, Kaur Mandeep · 2017Heavy Metals in Soil and Vegetables and their Effect on HealthInternational Journal of Engineering Science TechnologiesRead source →23Huang Z, Pan XD, Wu PG, Han JL, Chen Q · 2014Heavy metals in vegetables and the health risk to population in Zhejiang, ChinaFood ControlRead source →}