The Content of Cd and Pb in Herbs and Single-Component Spices Used in Polish Cuisine

Overview

This Polish study measured cadmium and lead in 432 samples of culinary herbs and spices purchased in Lublin, eastern Poland: 100 dried herb samples across 9 species, 184 fresh herb samples across 15 species, and 148 single-component spice samples across 14 species. Analysis was by graphite furnace AAS (GF-AAS). Mean Cd was highest in dried herbs (0.134 mg/kg fresh weight), far above fresh herbs (0.004 mg/kg) and spices (0.017 mg/kg). Mean Pb was also highest in dried herbs (0.548 mg/kg), compared to fresh herbs (0.039 mg/kg) and spices (0.064 mg/kg). All calculated exposure metrics (% TWI, % BMDL, CDI, THQ, HI) were well below 1 at typical Polish consumption of 0.7 g/day of herbs and 0.7 g/day of spices. However, Cd exceeded the EU maximum level in dried coriander (mean 0.419 mg/kg) and estragon (mean 0.427 mg/kg), and Pb exceeded the limit in several fresh herbs: watercress, jiaogulan, celery, basil, and dill.

Key numbers

Concentrations expressed in mg/kg fresh weight:

Dried herbs (n=100):

• Cd: mean 0.134 ± 0.168, max 0.493, median 0.047, p25 0.047; LOQ 0.0002 mg/kg
• Pb: mean 0.548 ± 0.161, max 0.913, median 0.555, p25 0.555
• Cd exceeded 0.3 mg/kg EU limit in: dried coriander (mean 0.419 mg/kg) and estragon (mean 0.427 mg/kg); 20% of coriander and 30% of estragon samples exceeded

Fresh herbs (n=184):

• Cd: mean 0.004 ± 0.007, max 0.028, 19% below LOQ
• Pb: mean 0.039 ± 0.033, max 0.122, 8% below LOQ
• Pb exceeded 0.3 mg/kg fresh herb limit in: watercress, jiaogulan, celery, basil, dill

Single-component spices (n=148):

• Cd: mean 0.017 ± 0.019, max 0.057, 32% below LOQ; no sample exceeded 0.3 mg/kg limit
• Pb: mean 0.064 ± 0.050, max 0.160, median 0.044; no sample exceeded limit
• Highest Cd spices: cumin > lemon pepper > black pepper > cinnamon > ginger
• Highest Pb spices: allspice > cayenne pepper > pink peppercorn > ginger > black pepper

Dried vs. fresh comparison (per dry weight basis): Cd and Pb were both significantly higher (P<0.05) in dried than fresh herbs, attributed to perennial vs. annual plant age, phosphate fertilizer use in commercial growing, and concentration during drying.

Regulatory limits applied (from PDF p. 3572 col 1 and p. 3573 col 2; the paper compares against both national and EU limits):

• Fresh herbs (Polish national MPL, Journal of Laws 13 Jan 2003, ref [38]): 0.05 mg/kg Cd, 0.3 mg/kg Pb
• Fresh herbs (EU, Commission Regulation EC 1881/2006, ref [56]): 0.2 mg/kg Cd
• Dried herbs and spices containing more than 50% herbs (Polish national MPL, Journal of Laws 27 Dec 2000, ref [40]): 0.3 mg/kg Cd, 2.0 mg/kg Pb

Exposure/risk:

• At 0.7 g/day dried herbs: EWI Cd = 6.57×10⁻⁴ µg/kg bw, corresponding to 3.75×10⁻⁴ % of TWI (2.5 µg/kg bw/week); EWI Pb = 2.69×10⁻³ µg/kg bw, corresponding to 3.65×10⁻⁴ % of BMDL01
• THQ for all products < 1; HI (Cd+Pb) < 1 for all categories

Methods (brief)

GF-AAS (graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy, Varian Spectr AA 880). Sample digestion: dry ashing at 450°C for 12 hours with H₂O₂ as oxidant, then dissolved in 1M HNO₃. LOD 0.001 mg/kg Cd, 0.011 mg/kg Pb; LOQ 0.0002 mg/kg Cd, 0.003 mg/kg Pb. Reference materials: INCT-TL-1 (tea leaves) recovery 103% Cd, 99% Pb; INCT-MPH-2 (mixed Polish herbs) recovery 94% Cd, 102% Pb. Replication deviation ≤5% (each analysis run in triplicate); duplicate-measurement deviation 5.8% Cd / 4.5% Pb; reproducibility 10.1% Cd / 13.9% Pb (Table 2). Statistical analysis: ANOVA with Duncan’s test, P<0.05. Fresh herbs were dried at 65°C for 24 h before analysis; reported both as fresh-weight and dry-weight equivalents.

Implications

Certification: Contributes occurrence data for Cd in dried herbs (n=100 across 9 species) and Pb in fresh herbs (n=184 across 15 species) sampled from Polish grocery retail. Two single-species dried herbs — coriander (mean Cd 0.419 mg/kg, 20% of samples above limit) and estragon (mean Cd 0.427 mg/kg, 30% above limit) — exceeded the applicable Polish national MPL of 0.3 mg/kg Cd for dried herbs. Five fresh herbs — watercress, jiaogulan, celery, basil, dill — exceeded the Polish national Pb MPL of 0.3 mg/kg in fresh herbs. The paper attributes elevated Cd in commercial dried herbs to soil phosphate-fertiliser use and to the older mean age of perennial commercial herb plants relative to the annual fresh herbs sampled here.

Courses: Clean illustration of the dried vs. fresh concentration effect: the same herb species shows ~30-fold higher Cd per fresh weight when dried, because moisture is removed but metal content is retained. This is critical for label-comparison literacy — a consumer seeing a mg/kg limit on dried herbs cannot directly compare it to a fresh-herb limit without a water-content conversion.

App: Dried herbs are a distinct ingredient class from fresh herbs in the risk model. The app should not apply fresh-herb contamination profiles to dried herb ingredients. The ingredient matrix field must distinguish these (dried-herbs vs. fresh-herbs), and contamination profiles should be maintained separately.

Wiki pages updated on ingest

• Herbs And Spices
• Dried Herbs
• Fresh Herbs
• Cadmium
• Lead
• Commission Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 setting maximum levels for certain contaminants in foodstuffs

Verification notes

Merge-enhance pass 2026-05-29 (manual-fetch ingest, MFK condiment_papers/05_PB_Vanilla_Spices):

• Re-verified all Table 3 per-category statistics (mean, max, median, p25, %<LOQ) against the source for dried herbs (n=100), fresh herbs (n=184), and spices (n=148) on Cd and Pb in mg/kg fresh weight; key numbers in this page match the source.
• Re-verified per-species exceedances against Figs. 2–4: Cd > 0.3 mg/kg dry-matter MPL in dried coriander (mean 0.419) and dried estragon (mean 0.427); Pb > 0.3 mg/kg fresh-herb MPL in watercress, jiaogulan, celery, basil, and dill (Fig. 3b); no spice sample exceeded its applicable Pb MPL. Matches source.
• Re-verified exposure metrics against Table 4: EWI Cd 6.57×10⁻⁴ µg/kg bw for dried herbs corresponding to 3.75×10⁻⁴ % TWI; EWI Pb 2.69×10⁻³ µg/kg bw corresponding to 3.65×10⁻⁴ % BMDL01 and 8.72×10⁻⁴ % BMDL10; all THQ and HI(Cd+Pb) < 1. Matches source.
• Re-verified analytical figures of merit and CRM recoveries against Table 2; all values match.
• Frontmatter defects corrected: raw_handle changed from generic manual-fetch-kimi to per-paper MFK_the-content-of-cd-and-pb-in-herbs-and-single-compo; raw_path corrected from truncated ...Use.pdf (file did not resolve) to the full filename ...Used in Polish Cuisine.pdf; raw_sha256, access_url, and tier_rationale added; sampling_locations populated with Lublin grocery retail per the Material and Methods section.
• Paper-internal inconsistencies noted (also captured in tier_rationale) and do not affect downstream synthesis: the methods narrative lists 15 fresh-herb species summing to 187 samples while the abstract and Table 3 report n=184; and the methods narrative names “pink peppercorn (n=8)” for the same single-component spice that Table 1 lists as “Rose pepper / Schinus terebinthifolius (n=10)” (botanically the same species).
• Brand-firewall check: source reports only species-level and category-level means; no brand-by-brand attribution is present in the paper, so no firewall-violating content to remove.

Audit subagent pass 2026-05-29 (v2.0 fresh-context general-purpose Agent, verdict REVISE): four findings applied, three rejected as not actionable.

Applied:

• ❌ Broken slug [[regulations/eu-reg-1881-2006]] corrected to [[regulations/eu-1881-2006-contaminants-superseded]] — verified via ls wiki/regulations/; the eu-reg-* form does not exist for 1881/2006.
• ⚠️ Regulatory attribution corrected: 0.05 mg/kg Cd in fresh herbs and 0.3 mg/kg Pb in fresh herbs are Polish national MPLs (PDF p. 3572 col 1, ref [38]: Polish Journal of Laws 13 Jan 2003); the EU 1881/2006 value for Cd in fresh herbs is 0.2 mg/kg (ref [56]). Prior wiki text incorrectly attributed 0.05 Cd to EU 1881/2006.
• ⚠️ Methods (brief) “Reproducibility ≤5%” was a conflation. PDF Table 2 reports two distinct metrics — duplicate-measurement deviation 5.8% Cd / 4.5% Pb and reproducibility 10.1% Cd / 13.9% Pb — plus PDF p. 3570 text saying replication deviations did not exceed 5%. Methods rewritten to list all three.
• ⚠️ Implications/Certification rewritten to contribute occurrence data and report the paper’s own causal hypothesis (phosphate-fertiliser and plant-age) rather than prescribe HMTc analyte-flagging or supplier-spec levers. Part 2 firewall: literature side, not program-design side.

Rejected (verified false-positive or not actionable):

• ⚠️ “p25 = median” presentational note for dried herbs Cd (0.047) and Pb (0.555). Both percentile values match Table 3 verbatim; the duplication is an artefact of the source distribution, not a wiki error. No edit.
• ⚠️ Matrices vocabulary check (dried-herbs, fresh-herbs, spices). taxonomy-snapshot.md does not define a matrices controlled list; the three slugs are in active corpus use across many sources. Not actionable from this PDF alone.
• ⚠️ No product-page route for fresh/dried herbs (~284/432 samples). This is a routing-coverage gap that would require Karen-approved Part 10 new-page proposals (no dried-herbs or fresh-herbs product page exists); not a per-source defect.

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.