Oct. 31, 2025 – We know high levels of lead in your blood can be harmful, and recent headlines suggest the heavy metal has gotten into our food supply. In the last 18 months, it's been found in protein powders, cinnamon, applesauce, lunch kits, and dark chocolate.
There's a reason for that: Lead is in our food. In fact, it's unavoidable.
"Lead is everywhere. It's an element, on the periodic table. It is a component of the earth," said Andrea Love, PhD, a biomedical scientist and founder of Immunologic, a newsletter dedicated to debunking scientific disinformation. "Pretty much any plant or food derived from a plant or even animals that eat plants or drink water, including humans, are going to have measurable but small levels of lead. You can't escape it if you're living on this planet."
Knowledge is your best defense – here's what the science and the experts say.
Lead in the Zeitgeist
Lead's everywhere-ness is nothing new. So, why are we hearing so much about it now?
"I think part of it is because people are interested in food," said Katarzyna Kordas, PhD, an associate professor of epidemiology and environmental health at the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions in Buffalo, New York. "They want to know what they're eating, and with easier access to laboratory equipment, there are more opportunities to test."
Our fear of lead in particular may have become more deeply ingrained since the federal government started mandating things like unleaded paint and gasoline in the 1970s. Those measures worked – since the 1940s, children's blood lead levels in the U.S. have decreased by 95% – but they also drew public attention to the toxic metal.
"Lead is one of the boogeymen burned into our 'Oh My God, there's bad things out there' zeitgeist," said David Ropeik, a book author, former Harvard instructor, and expert on risk perception. It triggers the same kind of alarm as words like pesticides, radiation, mercury, and DDT, Ropeik said. "What gets left out is the nuance on any of those about dose. There's no safe dose of lead, but low doses are not as bad as higher doses, and that's what's relevant."
It doesn't help that Americans' faith in food safety has plummeted. In a Gallup poll this summer, just over half of respondents had a "great deal" or "fair amount" of confidence that officials can keep the food supply safe – down from more than two-thirds in 2019. According to an Axios/Ipsos American Health Index poll released in October, 69% of respondents don't believe FDA assurances that foods containing pesticides or artificial dyes are safe to eat.
The 'Risk Perception Gap'
According to the FDA, "there is no known safe level of exposure to lead." High levels in the blood can be dangerous, but researchers haven't pinpointed an exact threshold. So the message has become: No level is safe. It's a subtle distinction but one that affects the way people perceive the risk.
Adding to the confusion: Every four years, the CDC adjusts the blood lead "reference value" so that roughly 2.5% of U.S. children are above it – the level goes down as exposure gets lower. As of 2021, that value is 3.5 micrograms of lead per deciliter (mcg/dl) of blood, down from 5 mcg/dl set in 2012. That the number keeps dropping is great, but it can also be misleading – if a child's level rises above 3.5 mcg/dl, that doesn't necessarily mean they're in danger. The reference value is not a safety threshold but rather a comparison tool – a benchmark used to identify children with higher levels than most.
"I think the threshold for lead will continue to go lower as instruments get more sensitive," said Adam Simpson, PhD, whose lab at the University of Southern California studies environmental toxins in food. "That's the problem. There needs to be more effective health and science communication on lead exposure, and an actual threshold of exposure that will cause chronic effects."
Ropeik calls it the risk perception gap – when people perceive the danger as being greater than it really is. When scientists assess risk, they use objective measures that consider both the level of exposure and the likelihood it will cause harm.
"There's a point at which the dose, the exposure to it, leads to bigger consequences," said Robyn Wilson, PhD, a professor of risk analysis and decision science at Ohio State University. "People aren't thinking about it that way. They're jumping right to that potential consequence, and they're picturing a child whose development is delayed or suffers permanent brain damage from exposure to lead, and they're reacting to that."
Let's Talk About Dose
If news reports about lead in food concern you, one tool to consider is the interim reference level (IRL) – the maximum amount of lead the FDA recommends you get from your diet per day. In other words, the dose. The FDA sets the IRL 10 times lower than what you'd need to reach the blood reference value. It gives you a big safety cushion. For children, the calculated IRL is 2.2 mcg per day, and for females of childbearing age, it's 8.8 mcg per day. Even IRL, though, can't help you keep track of your own consumption – lead levels in a particular food change, depending on where and when it's grown or produced.
"Just because someone measures lead in a batch of food in October 2025, it doesn't mean every food of that type consumed for the rest of your life will be high or low," Kordas said.
Confusing things further: The FDA isn't the only standard out there. In California, Proposition 65 has set a "maximum allowable dose level" that's a thousandth of the lowest exposure level at which any health effects have been observed in studies. That's dramatically lower than the IRL. When product testers go by Prop 65, results can be scary. Consumer Reports, whose research has found lead in protein powders, lunch kits, and chocolate, uses Prop 65.
When you take findings like these into account, it's important to consider your specific risk factors, Kordas said – things like your age and where you live. In an industrial city or old home, for instance, you're more likely to be exposed to lingering lead in your surroundings.
From there, think about three things:
- How much lead is in a particular food
- How much of that food you eat
- How often you eat it
"A food consumed daily will contribute to higher levels of lead exposure even if the level of contamination is lower, compared to the same food consumed once or twice a week," Kordas said.
One simple way to avoid getting too much lead from your food, without trying to track down the IRL of everything you eat: Take some oft-heard advice and consume a wide variety of foods, in moderation.
As Kordas put it, "A varied diet is probably the best way to lower lead exposure from food."
