Cadmium & Other Heavy MetalsUpdated 19 days ago

Under California's Prop 65, we are required by law to warn you about the potential presence of cadmium in our products, even at very low concentrations. (For more information about this, please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov/food.)

We test all of our beans and our chocolate for cadmium content to ensure that levels are quite low. Cadmium occurs naturally in cacao beans grown in newer soil (the trees take in various compounds from the soil, and when cadmium is in the soil, it is one of the compounds taken in); thus in some parts of the world, a degree of cadmium will often be present in beans. The amount of cadmium in our 100% bar will be slightly higher than in our other bars, as it contains no sugar. You will find more in-depth information here in our blog article. You may also find this video interesting; it was created recently by our Bean Sourcerer, Greg.

We also test all of our cocoa beans for other heavy metals. We test for arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, and several others. We have not found significant quantities of any metal in any of the beans we use.

The scientific research we have seen says that even at 1000 times the concentration found in cocoa beans, cadmium has not been shown to cause any ill effects on humans. This is our way of saying we would never sell a product we feel is unsafe; but we are required by CA law to let consumers know that the risk of cadmium in cocoa exists.