Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Natural News Lab results show similar numbers All the cacao powder products we tested showed cadmium concentrations of 1 ppm or higher. As you can see from the results here, cadmium concentrations are alarmingly high in many cacao products, frequently exceeding 1000 ppb (1 ppm). Brands whose cacao products showed high cadmium include Kiva, Essential Living Foods, Sunfood, Pure Natural Miracles and Navitas. Notably, Essential Living Foods ranked very clean on lead results with its "Peruvian cacao nibs" which showed ZERO lead (which is very unusual and difficult to find). Unfortunately, this was from a sample of Peruvian Cacao that ELF sent us back in 2012, with no lot number, so I can't say whether they have the same Peruvian Cacao available right now. (Hopefully they do!) The only cacao products found to have lower concentrations of cadmium were cacao nibs. Essential Living Foods, Earth Circle Organics and Health Ranger Select brands of cacao nibs all showed relatively low numbers of cadmium. Cadmium is persistent in cacao and coffee products, by the way. Both tend to bio-accumulate cadmium, concentrating it in the plant at much higher levels than what is found in the soil. There is no nutritive benefit to cadmium -- it is a toxic heavy metal linked to kidney damage, cardiovascular disease, skin disorders and more. Fortunately, cadmium tolerance in humans is much higher than lead tolerance, which is why California Prop 65 allows more than 800% more cadmium than lead. However, Natural News has just learned that the EU is banning cacao products with high cadmium levels starting in 2019. Many of the products listed here will be illegal to sell in the EU once this regulation takes effect. We'll be reporting more details on this shortly, including quoting the new EU regulation. The highest cadmium we found was in Kiva brand Cacao Powder, which consistently measured over 2.4 ppm -- a similar level to what we recently found in some rice protein products. For this reason, I recommend consuming cacao NIBS instead of cacao POWDERS in order to reduce your exposure to cadmium. In fact, we only currently sell cacao nibs (not cacao powder) under the Health Ranger Select brand for this very reason. Click here to see all cacao testing results.