Fruit Juice (Not Canned)
This page is a structural scaffold for HMTc Category 1 row 14. Broad infant/toddler-food evidence is promoted, FDA 2011 apple-juice speciation rows are routed as apple-only inorganic-arsenic context, FDA 2016 grape-category inorganic-arsenic rows are routed as non-apple/blend juice context, FDA TDS apple-juice finished-food rows are routed as small-N not-canned juice context, and Chekri/Weldegebriel fruit-juice rows are now structured as context-only evidence.
Heavy Metal Index pages are written for several audiences at once. Each entry point below names where to start if you are reading this page with a specific question in mind.
- Brand legal and regulatory affairs
- Cherry-pick attack vectors on packaged fruit juices typically center on lead in juice-bottled-from-concentrate plus inorganic arsenic in apple-containing varieties. Source provenance and varietal disclosure are the defensive core. The cited sources at the bottom of this page are the citations list, written to be quoted into a Daubert brief without further editing.
- Retailer quality and compliance
- The Federal / Regulatory Limits vs Field Findings section compares the applicable regulatory cap to cited field evidence on a like-for-like basis, with basis conversion shown when conversion is well-defined and a methodology anchor when speciation differs. The Literature Evidence Summary gives source count and confidence rating per analyte.
- Brand QA and product development
- Use the Lab Result Comparator to position a single lab value inside the cited literature. The comparator positions a single lab value inside the cited literature for packaged fruit juices, against the FDA 2022 draft lead and iAs caps.
- Regulators, journalists, and adversarial readers
- Every numeric claim on this page traces to a source page. The Evidence Governance note explains what this page is and is not (literature evidence, not HMT&C certification thresholds).
- HMT&C staff (internal)
- The threshold-selection arithmetic (percentile statistics, clean / dirty subcategory designation, CC eligibility) lives on the staff workbench snapshot at fruit-juice-not-canned, not on this public page.
This is the fast comparison view for standards developers, regulators, retailers, brands, and legal teams. It shows the applicable federal or regulatory limit next to the current field-evidence state. It is not an HMTc pass/fail table; technical distributions remain in the evidence sections below.
| Metal | Federal / regulatory limit | Actual field finding | Decision read | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| arsenic-inorganic (iAs) | fda2023-inorganic-arsenic-apple-juice: Federal FDA final action level: 10 ug/kg iAs. Scope: apple juice. Basis: juice. | FDA 2011 single-strength apple-juice speciation rows provide N=94 iAs lower-bound summary: p50 4.9 ppb, p90 7.7 ppb, p95 8.2 ppb, max 9.8 ppb. FDA 2016 grape-category rows add 58 quantified iAs cells from 61 grape and grape-containing juice rows: p50 11.2 ppb, p90 22.6 ppb, p95 25.6 ppb, max 49.6 ppb; NS rows are excluded from percentile math. | Apple-juice-specific comparison is routeable; the grape-category row adds non-apple/blend context but is still not a full not-canned fruit-juice aggregate. | fda2023-inorganic-arsenic-apple-juice; fera2014-fsa-metals-infant-foods-formula; fda2022-tds-elements-fy2018-fy2020; fda2011-apple-juice-arsenic-speciation; fda2016-infant-toddler-foods-inorganic-arsenic |
| arsenic-inorganic (iAs) | eu2023-contaminants-maximum-levels: EU European Commission maximum level: 20 ug/kg iAs. Scope: fruit juices, concentrated fruit juices as reconstituted, and fruit nectars. Basis: wet weight or reconstituted juice. | FDA 2011 single-strength apple-juice speciation rows provide N=94 iAs lower-bound summary: p50 4.9 ppb, p90 7.7 ppb, p95 8.2 ppb, max 9.8 ppb. FDA 2016 grape-category rows add 58 quantified iAs cells from 61 grape and grape-containing juice rows: p50 11.2 ppb, p90 22.6 ppb, p95 25.6 ppb, max 49.6 ppb; NS rows are excluded from percentile math. | Apple-juice and grape-category subset comparisons are available; broader not-canned fruit-juice aggregation still needs additional fit sources. | eu2023-contaminants-maximum-levels; fera2014-fsa-metals-infant-foods-formula; fda2022-tds-elements-fy2018-fy2020; fda2011-apple-juice-arsenic-speciation; fda2016-infant-toddler-foods-inorganic-arsenic |
| lead (Pb) | fda2022-draft-lead-juice: Federal FDA draft level, not final: 10 ug/kg Pb. Scope: single-strength apple juice. Basis: single-strength ready-to-drink juice. | FDA TDS FY2018-FY2020 apple juice rows provide N=3 bottled apple-juice results: Pb median 1.5 ppb, P95 2.58 ppb, max 2.7 ppb; total arsenic max 4.4 ppb, with no apple-juice iAs speciation row. | Draft context only. Do not present this value as a final federal limit or an HMTc threshold. | fda2022-draft-lead-juice; fera2014-fsa-metals-infant-foods-formula; fda2022-tds-elements-fy2018-fy2020 |
| lead (Pb) | fda2004-juice-haccp-lead: Federal FDA guidance hazard-control level: 50 ug/kg Pb. Scope: ready-to-drink fruit juices including fruit nectars. Basis: ready-to-drink juice. | FDA TDS apple juice N=3 had Pb median 1.5 ppb, P95 2.58 ppb, max 2.7 ppb; grapefruit juice N=3 had Pb reported as 0 ppb. | Current older juice guidance context; use as legal/regulatory context, not an HMTc value. | fda2004-juice-haccp-lead; fera2014-fsa-metals-infant-foods-formula; fda2022-tds-elements-fy2018-fy2020 |
| lead (Pb) | eu2023-contaminants-maximum-levels: EU European Commission maximum level: 30 ug/kg Pb. Scope: fruit juices, fruit juices from concentrate, concentrated fruit juices, and fruit nectars other than exclusively from berries and other small fruits. Basis: wet weight or reconstituted juice. | FDA TDS apple juice N=3 had Pb median 1.5 ppb, P95 2.58 ppb, max 2.7 ppb; grapefruit juice route review remains product-specific to the non-apple row. | EU maximum level loaded; one small-N apple-juice TDS row is below 30 ug/kg, but this is occurrence context and not an HMTc category distribution. | eu2023-contaminants-maximum-levels; fera2014-fsa-metals-infant-foods-formula; fda2022-tds-elements-fy2018-fy2020 |
Evidence Governance
Public evidence label: Modeled or limited evidence.
This page is part of the Category 1 Evidence Fitness pilot. It summarizes source-backed occurrence evidence, partial distributions, and data gaps for this product row. Existing cited tables remain public page-level synthesis; value-level tracking is maintained in the staff Standards Workbench.
This page does not publish or justify HMT&C certification limits. Public Index pages show what the cited sources say, what is still uncertain, and where readers can verify the evidence trail.
Literature Evidence Summary
The table below summarizes what the peer-reviewed and government literature cited on this page reports for heavy-metal concentrations in Fruit juice (not canned). Values are pulled directly from cited sources without re-aggregation; pooling, percentile selection, and threshold math sit in the staff Standards Workbench rather than this public page.
Methodology rules for speciation, basis preservation, non-detect handling, and source pooling are stated in the Methodology section above and apply to every row below.
| Analyte | Subcategory | Reported concentration range | Detection rate | Applicable regulatory cap | Sources | Confidence | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iAs | Fruit juice (not canned) (summary-only / supporting context) | mean 1 to 12.91 ppb (3 sources); highest reported 49.6 ppb | 97% detected (91/94, Fda 2011, single-strength-juice) | fda2023-inorganic-arsenic-apple-juice: 10 ppb (juice) | 3 cited | medium (3 sources) | as-consumed; single-strength-juice; ready-to-drink-juice-1-ml-1-g |
| Ni | Fruit juice (not canned) (direct row-fit) | mean/median 0 to 78 ppb (3 sources); highest reported 80 ppb | 33% detected (1/3, Fda 2022, FDA TDS prepared food/composite; reported concentration values retained) | No applicable cap loaded | 4 cited | medium (4 sources) | as-consumed; FDA TDS prepared food/composite; reported concentration values retained |
| Cd | Fruit juice (not canned) (direct row-fit) | mean/median 0 to 80 ppb (4 sources); highest reported 100 ppb | 0% detected (0/3, Fda 2022, FDA TDS prepared food/composite; reported concentration values retained) | No applicable cap loaded | 4 cited | medium (4 sources) | as-consumed; FDA TDS prepared food/composite; reported concentration values retained |
| Pb | Fruit juice (not canned) (summary-only / supporting context) | mean/median 1.5 to 35 ppb (3 sources); highest reported 40 ppb | 67% detected (2/3, Fda 2022, FDA TDS prepared food/composite; reported concentration values retained) | fda2022-draft-lead-juice: 10 ppb (single-strength ready-to-drink juice) | 3 cited | medium (3 sources) | as-consumed; FDA TDS prepared food/composite; reported concentration values retained |
Lead Benchmark Context
HMI normalizes this row’s lead benchmarks to ppb so regulatory ceilings, exposure screens, and occurrence values can be compared on one concentration scale. The values below do not all mean the same thing: FDA and EU entries are regulatory context, Prop 65 is a serving-based exposure screen, and source tables on this page remain occurrence evidence.
| Reference point | Lead ppb view | Basis | How to use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current FDA | 50 ppb (FDA current Juice HACCP guidance hazard-control level) | ready-to-drink fruit juices and fruit nectars | Current FDA guidance context; 2022 draft lead-in-juice guidance is not final and not for implementation |
| EU 2023/915 | 20 ppb | infant/young-child drink ready-to-use basis; ordinary juices have different EU lead levels | EU maximum level if labelled for infants/young children. |
| Prop 65 MADL screen | 4.2 ppb | 21 CFR 101.12 infant/young-child juice RACC of 120 mL, approximated as 120 g | Derived from the 0.5 ug/day lead MADL using 500 ÷ grams/day; not a product-specific food limit. |
| HMTc standards use | ppb-normalized context | FDA current context is 50 ppb; EU infant-labelled juice is 20 ppb; Prop 65 is about 4.2 ppb at 120 g/day. | Use 50 ppb as current FDA context, keep the 10/20 ppb FDA juice values as draft-only context, and split apple/non-apple before standards use. |
Juice is the clearest example where a current federal context value can look loose relative to Prop 65 and modern occurrence data.
Full crosswalk: lead-benchmark-context.
Regulatory Guidance Source Handling
The FDA 2022 draft juice guidance and the FDA 2004 Juice HACCP guidance are retained here as regulatory source context, not fruit-juice occurrence evidence. They document the draft 10/20 ppb lead context and current 50 ppb Juice HACCP context used in the crosswalk, but neither source reports measured product concentration rows for this locked HMTc category. fda2022-draft-lead-juice fda2004-juice-haccp-lead
Scaffold Status
- Page state: evidence-backed scaffold; row-specific synthesis remains incomplete.
- Source coverage: measured-values table populated from promoted A-tier sources; row-fit caveats remain in the table.
- Next ingest target: fruit juice monitoring reports that distinguish the not-canned scope where possible.
- Ingredient targets are unresolved app-taxonomy placeholders, not source-backed typical-ingredient findings.
Measured Values And Concentration Evidence
No promoted source currently gives a full not-canned fruit-juice-only concentration distribution. FDA 2011 apple juice is routed as apple-only inorganic-arsenic context, FDA 2016 grape-category rows are routed as grape/blend inorganic-arsenic context, FDA TDS apple juice is routed as a small-N finished-food row, and broader UK baby-drinks and packaged fruit-juice sources are structured as context only until row-fit filtering resolves fruit type, canned status, analyte species, and statistic fit.
| Analyte | Evidence scope | Reported value | Approximate ppb equivalent | Source | Row-fit caveat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inorganic arsenic | FDA 2011 single-strength apple juice | N=94; lower-bound p50 4.9 ppb; p90 7.7 ppb; p95 8.2 ppb; max 9.8 ppb | retained ppb summary | fda2011-apple-juice-arsenic-speciation | Apple-only subcategory context; not a full not-canned fruit-juice aggregate. |
| Inorganic arsenic | FDA 2016 grape and grape-containing juice category | 58 quantified iAs cells from 61 source rows; quantified-cell p50 11.2 ppb; p90 22.6 ppb; p95 25.6 ppb; max 49.6 ppb | retained ppb summary | fda2016-infant-toddler-foods-inorganic-arsenic | Grape-category subcategory context; includes grape blends, apple-grape blends, and one FDA-designated white-grape-peach row; not a full not-canned fruit-juice aggregate. |
| Lead | FDA TDS 99 apple juice, bottled | N=3; p50 1.5 ppb; p90 2.46 ppb; p95 2.58 ppb; max 2.7 ppb | retained ppb summary | fda2022-tds-elements-fy2018-fy2020 | Small-N apple bottled juice route; not a not-canned juice aggregate. |
| Cadmium | FDA TDS 99 apple juice, bottled | N=3; all reported concentrations 0 ppb | 0 ppb reported concentration summary; reporting limit 1 ppb | fda2022-tds-elements-fy2018-fy2020 | Small-N apple bottled juice route; reported zeroes retained as FDA reported. |
| Total arsenic | FDA TDS 99 apple juice, bottled | N=3; p50 2.4 ppb; p90 4 ppb; p95 4.2 ppb; max 4.4 ppb | retained ppb summary | fda2022-tds-elements-fy2018-fy2020 | Total arsenic only; not inorganic arsenic. |
| Nickel | FDA TDS 99 apple juice, bottled | N=3; p50 0 ppb; p90 16 ppb; p95 18 ppb; max 20 ppb | retained ppb summary; reporting limit 20 ppb | fda2022-tds-elements-fy2018-fy2020 | Small-N row with high reporting limit; occurrence context only. |
| Total arsenic | UK baby drinks | 2 ug/kg | 2 ppb | fsa2016-infant-food-formula-metals-survey | Baby-drinks group, not specifically not-canned fruit juice. |
| Inorganic arsenic | UK baby drinks | 1 ug/kg | 1 ppb | fsa2016-infant-food-formula-metals-survey | Baby-drinks group, not specifically not-canned fruit juice. |
| Cadmium | UK baby drinks | 0 ug/kg | 0 ppb lower-bound category value | fsa2016-infant-food-formula-metals-survey | Lower-bound/upper-bound treatment; not juice-specific. |
| Lead | UK baby drinks | 3 ug/kg | 3 ppb | fsa2016-infant-food-formula-metals-survey | Baby-drinks group, not specifically not-canned fruit juice. |
| Nickel | UK baby drinks | 0 to 9 ug/kg | 0 to 9 ppb | fsa2016-infant-food-formula-metals-survey | Baby-drinks group, not specifically not-canned fruit juice. |
| Nickel | Ethiopia packaged fruit juices consumed by children | range 0.0025 to 0.08 mg/L; median 0.078 mg/L | range 2.5 to 80 ppb; median 78 ppb | weldegebriel2025-ethiopia-packaged-fruit-juice-metals | Includes canned, glass, carton, and tetra-pack products; canned products must be excluded for this row. |
| Nickel | Ethiopia mango, pineapple, strawberry, and cocktail juice medians | mango 34 ppb; pineapple 70 ppb; strawberry 62 ppb; cocktail 56.5 ppb | 34 to 70 ppb fruit-type medians | weldegebriel2025-ethiopia-packaged-fruit-juice-metals | Fruit-type medians are not packaging-filtered p90 values. |
| Cadmium | Ethiopia packaged fruit juices consumed by children | range 0.01 to 0.1 mg/L; median 0.08 mg/L | range 10 to 100 ppb; median 80 ppb | weldegebriel2025-ethiopia-packaged-fruit-juice-metals | Includes canned, glass, carton, and tetra-pack products; row-fit filtering pending. |
| Lead | Ethiopia packaged fruit juices consumed by children | range 0.01 to 0.04 mg/L; median 0.035 mg/L | range 10 to 40 ppb; median 35 ppb | weldegebriel2025-ethiopia-packaged-fruit-juice-metals | Includes canned, glass, carton, and tetra-pack products; row-fit filtering pending. |
French TDS Category Rows
Chekri 2019 reports a French infant fruit-juice category with N=4. The source does not identify canned status, so the values are supportive context for this not-canned juice row rather than a clean row-specific distribution. Chekri 2019
| French TDS row | N | Basis | Al mean / max | tAs mean / max | Cd mean / max | Cr-total mean / max | Ni mean / max | Sn mean / max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fruit juices | 4 | as consumed | 191 / 314 ppb | 2 / 2 ppb | 0.30 / 0.30 ppb | 21 / 29 ppb | 25 / 25 ppb | 62.5 / 83 ppb |
Row Relationship
This row is independent in the locked row architecture and has no clean-counterpart partner.
Why This Category Is High-Risk
A 2022 narrative review states that the few U.S. infant-food-specific heavy-metal guidance exceptions at the time included maximum lead and arsenic levels in certain fruit juices. bair2022-heavy-metals-infant-toddler-foods
Not-canned fruit juice risk characterization remains pending because the promoted source does not provide not-canned juice concentration distributions for apple or grape juice.
What Drives Variance Across Brands
Potential variance drivers for fruit juice should be documented only after sources distinguish fruit type, concentrate use, water inputs, packaging, canned versus not-canned scope, and analytical method.
Weldegebriel 2025 supports packaging and fruit type as candidate variance drivers because it reports higher nickel in pineapple, strawberry, and cocktail juice than mango juice, while also flagging packaging type as a contamination variable; this source still requires canned/not-canned filtering before it can support the locked row distribution. weldegebriel2025-ethiopia-packaged-fruit-juice-metals
How The App Would Estimate Risk From An Ingredient List
The app model placeholder for this row should treat fruit-juice, apple-juice, and grape-juice as unresolved ingredient targets until source-backed contamination profiles exist.
Historical Recalls/Enforcement
Primary FDA juice action-level documents are now captured in the page-level crosswalk above; exact use still requires apple/non-apple and canned/not-canned scope review.
No row-specific regulatory event has been added for this scaffold.
Broad Product Context: Author-Scope Index
The sources below are catalogued as product-context candidates for this row. The “Author-scope row-fit” column states what the authors actually resolved on each axis: matrix (cow milk-based, soy-based, rice-based, non-rice, or unresolved) and format (powder, ready-to-feed liquid, concentrated liquid, dry, or unresolved). A source counts toward this row’s evidence pool only once; rows marked “Cross-reference” already appear as direct evidence elsewhere on this page and are not counted again here.
| Source | Title | Source scope | Metals | Author-scope row-fit | Canonical appearance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gardener2019-lead-cadmium-infant-formula-baby-food | Lead and cadmium contamination in a large sample of United St… | infant-formula; baby-cereals; toddler-formula; fruit-juice | Pb; Cd | Matrix axis: unresolved (declares infant formula broadly). Format axis: unresolved (powder vs RTF not split). Source is broader than this row; authors do not narrow to this exact matrix/format pair. | (context only) |
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 | Weldegebriel et al. 2025. Toxic metal contamination and health risk assessment of packaged fruit juices for children in Gondar city, Ethiopia, Scientific Reports | 2025 | Peer-reviewed | Cd, Pb, Cr, and Ni concentrations in 80 packaged fruit juices (tetra pack, glass, carton, and canned) in Ethiopia; includes packaging-type and fruit-type medians relevant to not-canned format filtering, but canned products must be excluded before HMTc row distribution is computed |
| 2 | Bair 2022. A Narrative Review of Toxic Heavy Metal Content of Infant and Toddler Foods and Evaluation of United States Policy, Frontiers in Nutrition 9:919913 | 2022 | Peer-reviewed | US narrative review noting the absence of comprehensive infant-food-specific guidance for fruit juices at the time and summarizing the available regulatory and occurrence context for juice metals |
| 3 | FDA 2022. Draft Guidance for Industry: Action Levels for Lead in Juice, FDA Draft Guidance for Industry | 2022 | Government guidance | FDA April 2022 draft guidance proposing 10 ppb Pb for single-strength apple juice and 20 ppb for other single-strength juices, loaded as regulatory context only; not finalized, not used as an HMTc threshold |
| 4 | FDA 2022. FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical Results, FDA Total Diet Study | 2022 | Government dataset | FDA Total Diet Study FY2018-FY2020 providing Pb, Cd, tAs, and Ni measurements for bottled apple juice (N=3) and grapefruit juice rows, the primary US occurrence rows on this page for not-canned fruit juice |
| 5 | 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 | French TDS reporting multi-element concentrations in a French infant fruit-juice category (N=4); canned status not identified, so used as supportive context rather than a clean not-canned distribution |
| 6 | Gardener et al. 2019. Lead and cadmium contamination in a large sample of United States infant formulas and baby foods, Science of the Total Environment | 2019 | Peer-reviewed | 564-sample US baby-food and formula Pb/Cd study including a fruit-juice category, providing broad product-context for juice Pb and Cd; category is not split by packaging type or juice type |
| 7 | FDA 2018. Analytical Results for Lead in Juice Sampled Under the FDA’s Toxic Elements in Food and Foodware, and Radionuclides in Food – Import and Domestic Compliance Program (FY2005-FY2018), FDA analytical results table | 2018 | Government dataset | 1,643-sample FY2005-FY2018 FDA compliance-program Pb dataset for juice on a single-strength basis, the principal sample-level evidence behind the FDA Closer to Zero juice lead action level development |
| 8 | FDA 2016. Analytical Results from Inorganic Arsenic in Rice Cereals for Infants, Non-Rice Infant Cereal and Other Foods Commonly Eaten by Infants and Toddlers, U.S. Food and Drug Administration | 2016 | Government dataset | FDA 2016 iAs dataset providing 61 grape and grape-containing juice rows with quantified iAs concentrations (p50 11.2 ppb, p90 22.6 ppb, max 49.6 ppb), the grape-category subcategory context on this page |
| 9 | FDA 2011. Results of Arsenic Analysis in Single-Strength Apple Juice 2011 (ORA Sampling Assignment 2011102701), U.S. Food and Drug Administration | 2011 | Government dataset | 94-sample FDA single-strength apple-juice iAs speciation dataset (p50 4.9 ppb, p90 7.7 ppb, max 9.8 ppb), the direct species-specific apple-juice occurrence evidence on this page |
| 10 | Harper et al. 2005. Toxicological Profile for Tin and Tin Compounds, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ATSDR | 2005 | Government report | ATSDR comprehensive toxicological profile for Sn establishing the health basis for tin limits in fruit juices and documenting the distinction between inorganic tin (food-contact migration from tinplate) and organic tin compounds |
| 11 | FDA 2004. Juice HACCP Hazards and Controls Guidance, First Edition — Lead in Juice, FDA Guidance for Industry | 2004 | Government guidance | FDA Juice HACCP guidance recommending lead controls at 50 ppb for ready-to-drink fruit juices; loaded as legacy regulatory context that the 2022 draft guidance would replace if finalized |
| 12 | Benoy et al. 1971. The Toxicity of Tin in Canned Fruit Juices and Solid Foods, Food and Cosmetics Toxicology, Vol. 9, Issue 5, pp. 645-656 | 1971 | Peer-reviewed | 1971 animal and human Sn-toxicity study motivated by a Kuwait food poisoning outbreak, establishing vomiting thresholds for dissolved tin in canned juices and documenting the local-irritation mechanism; relevant to the tin-in-canned-juice risk framing but not to not-canned product occurrence |