Heavy metals in Meal-replacement drinks

Overview

This provisional ingredient page records source-specific measurements for meal replacement drink. Its population contamination profile has not been synthesized. See Ingredients for the ingredient inventory.

Heavy metal contamination profile

The profile fields remain pending until an evidence synthesis supports a population estimate. Source observations are listed separately below.

Reported measurements from source notes are below. No typical or upper-tail value is calculated here, and no certification limit is stated. The contamination profile in the page frontmatter is unchanged.

Reported measurements

The 2018 to 2019 Canadian Food Inspection Agency note reports a Table 2 row labeled Meal replacement, n = 198, in ppm. The note states that ppm equals mg/kg. This page does not convert further. Results are food as sold. Averages use only quantifiable results. The limit of detection is 0.001 to 0.01 ppm. Total arsenic was detected in 44 percent of samples, mean 0.022 ppm, range below the limit of detection to 0.139 ppm. Cadmium was detected in 31 percent, mean 0.037 ppm, range below the limit of detection to 0.190 ppm. Lead was detected in 40 percent, mean 0.024 ppm, range below the limit of detection to 0.231 ppm. Total mercury was detected in 9 percent, mean 0.002 ppm, range below the limit of detection to 0.006 ppm. Table 1 splits the 198 meal replacement samples as 16 domestic, 135 imported, and 47 of unspecified origin. The sample population text calls these meal replacement beverages. The arsenic narrative states that all arsenic levels in ready-to-serve meal replacement beverages met the existing 0.1 ppm tolerance. That sentence sits beside the Table 2 meal replacement maximum of 0.139 ppm. The two statements are printed side by side. The survey-wide lead range is 0 to 0.237 ppm, beside the meal replacement lead maximum of 0.231 ppm. The highest arsenic values in the note, 1.12 ppm and 1.13 ppm, are brown rice bran and germ powder, not meal replacement. Inorganic arsenic and methylmercury were not measured. Chromium, nickel, aluminum, and tin were not measured. Toxic Metals in Selected Foods – April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019: Food chemistry – Targeted surveys – Final report

Meal-replacement drinks and gut studies of lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury

Meal-replacement drinks are complete-diet products, so a metal panel on the drink is closer to an intake than a spice-level ingredient result. The gut papers are still not drink studies. They cover tooth lead, drinking-water cadmium, drinking-water arsenic, and methylmercury demethylation. A brand should keep the drink’s metal panel, the metal species, and any microbiome claim in separate records.

Sitarik et al. 2020 measured tooth lead and stool microbiota at 1 month and 6 months in 146 maternal-child pairs in the Detroit-area WHEALS cohort. In utero tooth lead was associated with fungal community composition at 1 month. Lead was not associated with overall bacterial community structure. Taxon-level bacterial shifts were higher Collinsella at 1 month, higher Bilophila at 6 months, and lower Bacteroides. The direction is lead exposure toward microbiota composition. Tooth lead is a biomarker, not a concentration in this ingredient.

Zhang et al. 2015, per WikiBiome source summary, DOI 10.1021/acs.chemrestox.5b00237, gave mice 10 mg/L cadmium in drinking water for 10 weeks. Firmicutes and gamma-proteobacteria decreased in feces after 4 weeks, and Firmicutes decreased in cecum contents after 10 weeks. The direction is cadmium toward gut microbiota, alongside hepatic energy-metabolism changes in the same animals. The summary does not name a food.

Lu et al. 2014, per WikiBiome source summary, DOI 10.1289/ehp.1307429, reported that 10 ppm arsenic in drinking water for 4 weeks perturbed gut microbiome composition in C57BL/6 mice and perturbed gut-microflora-related metabolites. The recorded abstract does not name the arsenic species. The direction is arsenic toward microbiota and metabolites. The summary does not support an arsenic concentration in this ingredient.

Coe et al. 2023 paired a human cohort with gnotobiotic mice colonized with human microbiota. Gut microbes demethylated a fraction of ingested methylmercury, and the resulting inorganic mercury was preferentially excreted in feces rather than absorbed. Demethylation efficiency varied between people and was associated with taxa that carry mer operon machinery. The direction is gut microbiota toward methylmercury demethylation and elimination. The source page does not print one numeric fraction and does not give a methylmercury concentration in this ingredient.

Study table

What remains uncertain

None of the studies administered a meal-replacement drink. Arsenic species is unnamed in the Lu abstract record. Mercury evidence is methylmercury, not total mercury in a shake powder. Protein source, fiber, and sweetener systems are not factors in these papers.

FDA TDS FY2018–FY2020 source observations

FDA measured the prepared foods named below. Each row describes that food and preparation, not every form of this ingredient. Values are µg/kg (ppb) on the FDA sample basis. ND means not detected; it is not a measured zero. Reporting limits can vary between composites. FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical Results

References

Works cited in this page’s text, in first-appearance order. See Sources for this page’s source inventory. Each title links to a source record with bibliographic details, reported findings, and document provenance.

1. Toxic Metals in Selected Foods – April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019: Food chemistry – Targeted surveys – Final reportCanadian Food Inspection Agency · 2020 · inspection.canada.caGovernment
2. Fetal and early postnatal lead exposure measured in teeth associates with infant gut microbiotaSitarik AR, Arora M, Austin C, Bielak LF, Eggers S, Johnson CC, et al. · Environment International · 2020 · doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2020.106062Peer-reviewed
3. Subchronic Exposure of Mice to Cadmium Perturbs Their Hepatic Energy Metabolism and Gut MicrobiomeSongbin Zhang, Yuanxiang Jin, Zhaoyang Zeng, Zhenzhen Liu, and Zhengwei Fu · Chemical Research in Toxicology · 2015 · doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrestox.5b00237Peer-reviewed
4. Arsenic Exposure Perturbs the Gut Microbiome and Its Metabolic Profile in Mice: An Integrated Metagenomics and Metabolomics AnalysisKun Lu, Ryan Phillip Abo, Katherine Ann Schlieper, Michelle E. Graffam, Stuart Levine, John S. Wishnok, et al. · Environmental Health Perspectives · 2014 · doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1307429Peer-reviewed
5. Assessing the Role of the Gut Microbiome in Methylmercury Demethylation and Elimination in Humans and Gnotobiotic MiceGenevieve L. Coe, Ian N. Krout, Mason Munro-Ehrlich, Catherine R. Beamish, Daria Vorojeikina, Daniel R. Colman, et al. · Archives of Toxicology, Vol. 97, pp. 2399-2418 · 2023 · doi.org/10.1007/s00204-023-03548-7Peer-reviewed
6. FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical ResultsU.S. Food and Drug Administration · FDA Total Diet Study · 2022 · www.fda.govDataset

Sources

Sources catalogued for this page. The last column says how each source is used here.

Update history

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