Plant Milks, Soy-Based
This page is HMTc Category 5 row 6. It is no longer a pure scaffold: the row has early finished-product occurrence evidence, but the evidence is still insufficient for HMTc threshold-setting.
Who this page is for
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 soy-based plant milks typically center on cadmium uptake by the soy crop. Geographic and growing-region context are the defensive core. Compare with Plant Milks Non Soy Non Rice for the within-pair sibling. 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 soy-based plant milks.
- 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)
- HMT&C certification thresholds for products in this row are developed under the certification program at heavymetaltested.com, not on this public page. The Index and HMT&C operate on the same evidence base but apply different publication rules; see the methodology for the separation.
Methodology
This page reports what the peer-reviewed and regulatory literature states about heavy-metal concentrations in soy-based plant milks. HMT&C certification thresholds for products in this row are developed under the certification program at heavymetaltested.com, not on this page.
Speciation is non-substitutable. Inorganic arsenic (iAs) and total arsenic (tAs) are separate analytes. Total mercury (tHg) and methylmercury (MeHg) are separate analytes. Total chromium (Cr) and hexavalent chromium (Cr-VI) are separate analytes. Values are never interchanged across speciation boundaries.
Basis is preserved and labeled. Concentration values are reported as the source states them (as consumed, as placed on market, dry weight). Conversion between bases is shown explicitly when performed; silent conversion is never done.
Row-fit follows author scope. A source’s matrix and format classification is determined by what the authors state, not by re-derivation. Vague author scope receives a partial row-fit designation; sources silent on matrix receive an unknown designation.
Non-detect handling preserves source convention. Sources that report non-detects as zero, as LOD/2, or as <LOD are recorded as stated. The convention is noted in the Source Evidence Inventory.
Source pooling is avoided across different LOQ thresholds, collection periods, geographies, and analytical-basis differences without explicit documentation of the pooling rationale.
Decision Snapshot
| Field | Status |
|---|---|
| Row state | Early occurrence evidence promoted |
| Best current source | milani2023-trace-elements-soy-based-beverages |
| Support source | marques2021-trace-elements-milks-plant-based-drinks |
| Computation readiness | Context-ready for Al, Ni, Pb, Cd, Sn, Cr, Sb; not threshold-ready |
| Ingredient routing | plant-milk, soy |
| HMTc use | Occurrence prioritization only; no certified-brand, compliance, or threshold claim |
Federal / Regulatory Limits vs Field Findings
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| aluminum (Al) | No federal product-specific limit loaded in this crosswalk. | Milani 2023: Al means 758, 609, and 176 ug/L by soy source; max range endpoint 1822 ug/L. | Occurrence evidence only. Do not infer a federal exceedance or HMTc pass/fail result from this row. | milani2023-trace-elements-soy-based-beverages |
| arsenic-total (tAs); cadmium (Cd); lead (Pb); tin (Sn) | No federal/product-specific limit loaded yet. Source-cited non-U.S. thresholds require direct legal-source, unit, basis, and species review. | tAs <38.2 ug/L; Cd <3.8 ug/L; Pb mostly <10.9 ug/L with soybean group mean 2.2 ug/L; Sn <18 ug/L except isolate mean 4.3 ug/L. | No compliance read yet. Load the direct legal text before using this row in regulatory or litigation analysis. | milani2023-trace-elements-soy-based-beverages |
| Cr-total; Sb | No federal product-specific limit loaded in this crosswalk. | Milani 2023: Cr isolate mean 1.8 ug/L with range <10.9-11.0; hydrosoluble and soybean groups <10.9 ug/L. Sb means 6.2, 2.5, and 12 ug/L with range endpoints up to 61 ug/L. | Occurrence evidence only. Do not infer a federal exceedance or HMTc pass/fail result from this row. | milani2023-trace-elements-soy-based-beverages |
Broad Product Context: Author-Scope Index
Broad-context source index will be auto-generated here when the routing audit identifies sources whose author-stated scope is broader than this product row.
Source Evidence Inventory
Sources contributing measured soy-based plant milk concentrations are listed below. Intake and exposure estimates are kept separate from measured product concentrations.
milani2023-trace-elements-soy-based-beverages analyzed 18 soy-based beverages from Brazil by ICP-OES. The paper is directly relevant to this product row because it measures finished soy beverages rather than soy ingredient powders or isolated soy raw materials.
Milani reports chromium as total/unspecified Cr and antimony as Sb in the finished beverage groups. Those values are useful occurrence context, but they are not Cr-VI evidence, not a compliance determination, and not an HMTc threshold input.
marques2021-trace-elements-milks-plant-based-drinks measured Spanish retail plant-based drinks and supports the broader row architecture, but it does not resolve the Al/Cd/iAs gaps for this row.
Ingredient Handling
Ingredient-only values belong on soy or plant-milk. Milani’s values are finished beverage values, so they remain here and in the structured occurrence data layer.
Literature Evidence Summary
The table below summarizes what the peer-reviewed and government literature cited on this page reports for heavy-metal concentrations in soy-based product. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Al | soy-based (no contributing evidence loaded) | No concentration data loaded for this analyte | Sample-level detection rate not reported | No applicable cap loaded | 0 | data gap | Basis not reported |
| Ni | soy-based (no contributing evidence loaded) | No concentration data loaded for this analyte | Sample-level detection rate not reported | No applicable cap loaded | 0 | data gap | Basis not reported |
| Cd | soy-based (no contributing evidence loaded) | No concentration data loaded for this analyte | Sample-level detection rate not reported | No applicable cap loaded | 0 | data gap | Basis not reported |
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 | Good et al. 2026. Comparative exposure and risk assessment of heavy metals, nutrients, and organochlorine pesticides in cow and plant-based milks, Scientific Reports | 2026 | Peer-reviewed | US Cr, tAs, Cd, Pb occurrence in Twenty-two commercially available milk products purchased from major grocery retailers in Houston, Texas, USA. Eight milk-type categories: cow… (n=22) |
| 2 | Zvěřina et al. 2025. Essential and toxic elements in plant-based dairy alternatives: implications for vegan diets, European Food Research and Technology | 2025 | Peer-reviewed | CZ/EU Pb, Cd occurrence in Fifty-four plant-based dairy alternative (PBDA) samples sourced from the Czech market in Brno, Czech Republic. Composition: 35 milk… (n=54) |
| 3 | Andrade et al. 2023. Metals in Cow Milk and Soy Beverages: Is There a Concern?, Toxics | 2023 | Peer-reviewed | PT Pb, Cd, Mn occurrence in Twenty-eight beverages purchased on the Portuguese retail market in Lisbon between February and May 2019: 14 cow milk… (n=28) |
| 4 | Hariono et al. 2023. Quality nutrition, metal content, and health risks in soy milk products using aluminum and stainless steel cookers, Aceh Nutrition Journal, 8(4): 526-532 | 2023 | Peer-reviewed | ID Pb, Cu, Zn, tHg, tAs occurrence in Soy milk from one industrial-scale producer in Sumbersari District, Jember Regency, East Java, Indonesia, compared after processing in… (n=2) |
| 5 | Milani et al. 2023. Trace Elements in Soy-Based Beverages: A Comprehensive Study of Total Content and In Vitro Bioaccessibility, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health | 2023 | Peer-reviewed | ICP-OES measurement of Al, tAs, Cd, Cr, Ni, Pb, Sb, and Sn in 18 Brazilian soy-based beverages by soy-source group; primary multi-metal occurrence source for the soy plant-milk row (Al group means 176–758 µg/L; most others <LOQ) |
| 6 | Redan et al. 2023. Analysis of Eight Types of Plant-based Milk Alternatives from the United States Market for Target Minerals and Trace Elements, Journal of Food Composition and Analysis | 2023 | Peer-reviewed | US tAs, Cd, Pb occurrence in Eighty-five plant-based milk alternative product units from 19 brands purchased from 10 retail markets and an online retailer… (n=85) |
| 7 | Marques et al. 2021. Essential and Non-essential Trace Elements in Milks and Plant-Based Drinks, Biological Trace Element Research | 2021 | Peer-reviewed | ICP-MS survey of Pb, tHg, Ni, and U in retail plant-based drinks from Spain including soy drink; tHg not detected; provides multi-metal occurrence context and Ni comparison for the soy plant-milk row |
| 8 | Maduabuchi et al. 2007. Arsenic and Chromium in Canned and Non-Canned Beverages in Nigeria: A Potential Public Health Concern, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health | 2007 | Peer-reviewed | NG tAs, Cr occurrence in Fifty commonly consumed canned and non-canned beverages purchased in Nigeria in March 2005: 21 canned beverages and 29… (n=50) |
CC candidate evidence map
| Analyte | Distribution sources (sample-level) | Summary sources | Total source count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pb | — | Milani 2023 (group means; mostly <LOQ), Marques 2021 (n=42 plant-drinks) | 2 summary |
| Cd | — | Milani 2023 (all <LOQ; below-LOQ candidate at 5×LOQ=19 ppb) | 1 summary (below-LOQ) |
| tAs | — | Milani 2023 (all <LOQ; below-LOQ candidate at 5×LOQ=191 ppb; high ICP-OES LOQ) | 1 summary (below-LOQ) |
| iAs | — | — | 0 (Milani measured tAs only) |
| MeHg | — | — | 0 |
| tHg | — | Marques 2021 (not detected) | 1 summary |
| Al | — | Milani 2023 (group means 176-758 ppb; range 45-1822 ppb) | 1 summary (single-source coverage; closing requires 2nd Al source) |
| Ni | — | Milani 2023 (soybean group mean 29 ppb), Marques 2021 | 2 summary |
| Cr-VI | — | inference-cascade only (Hernandez/Saraiva chemistry; milk-like matrix) | 1 cascade |
| Sn | — | Milani 2023 (isolate-protein group mean 4.3 ppb at LOD-zero; max 26 ppb; below-LOQ candidate at 5×LOQ=90 ppb) | 1 summary (below-LOQ) |
Levers to reduce contamination
The levers below are ordered by estimated impact magnitude for finished soy-based plant milks as a product category. The primary metals of concern are aluminum (Al), nickel (Ni), and cadmium (Cd). Magnitude claims are cited; uncited lever rows carry a placeholder noting that quantified evidence has not yet been ingested.
| Lever category | Specific action | Estimated magnitude | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sourcing | Source soy from low-Cd soils; US soybean-origin Al means (176–758 µg/L in beverage) vary by soy input type (hydrosoluble vs soybean vs isolate); isolate-protein sources yielded lower mean Al in Milani 2023 | Al group means 176–758 µg/L range by soy-source type | 1 |
| Sourcing | Supplier certificate of analysis for Cd and Pb on each soy lot; soy accumulates Cd from soil and cadmium burden varies by growing region | Quantified magnitude data not yet ingested for finished beverage Cd reduction; section will be expanded when evidence is available. | — |
| Agronomic | Soil Cd pre-screening at soy growing region; low-Cd cultivar selection where available | Quantified magnitude data not yet ingested | — |
| Processing | For isolate-derived soy beverages: wet-process extraction reduces mineral carrythrough relative to whole-bean processing; affects Ni and Al | Quantified magnitude data not yet ingested | — |
| Formulation | Where Al reduction is the target, hydrosoluble or isolate soy fractions may carry lower Al burden than whole-soybean inputs (see Milani 2023 group-mean comparison) | Al group means 176 µg/L (isolate-protein) vs 609–758 µg/L (hydrosoluble/soybean) | 1 |
| Testing/QC | Lot-level finished-product ICP-OES or ICP-MS testing for Al, Ni, Cd, and Pb; Milani 2023 ICP-OES LOQs for tAs and Cd were high (191 ppb and 19 ppb respectively), so method selection affects detection capability | Quantified magnitude data not yet ingested for lot-level QC impact on Cd/tAs | — |
| Packaging/storage | Non-canned format; aluminum packaging contact is not a primary contamination pathway for soy beverages in Tetra-Pak or glass formats | Not a primary lever for this product class | — |
How standards math uses this page
HMT&C threshold-setting reads this page’s Source Evidence Inventory and Literature Evidence Summary as its literature baseline. Certification threshold decisions are made separately under the certification program and are not published on this public page.
When this page’s source evidence changes — a new source is added to the Source Evidence Inventory, or an existing source’s row-fit is revised — the Standards Workbench snapshot should be regenerated to reflect the updated literature baseline. The workbench snapshot is the threshold-setting surface; this public page is the literature-evidence surface. The two are maintained in parallel by design.
Historical recalls and enforcement
No public recalls or enforcement actions specifically targeting heavy metals in soy-based plant milks are documented in the wiki’s source corpus as of the last review. This section will be populated when regulatory enforcement events are ingested.
Frame: if FDA, EU, or national-agency enforcement actions involving heavy metals in this product category are identified in future ingest, they will appear here as regulatory events. This section does not rank brands.
Page history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page. 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.
| Commit | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| b0f3d38 | 2026-06-12 | batch | corpus rescreen b04 old terminal skips |