Unfortunately for chocolate lovers, the richer the chocolate, often the heavier dose of cadmium—and a difficult challenge for farmers to decrease naturally occurring Cd levels
We all know that too much cadmium (Cd) in our bodies is just as dangerous as lead. Both are heavy metals, and while specific limits have been put on lead exposure (both in the air and orally), cadmium isn’t quite as well documented—at least in the U.S. The EPA places maximum allowable levels of cadmium in our drinking water as 5 parts per billion (ppb) with a goal of 0 ppb, but FDA has not set limits on safe levels of cadmium in food except to say that toddlers and infants should have no exposure at all.
For maximum allowable daily levels (MADLs) of cadmium in our food, we have to look elsewhere. California’s Prop 65 sets a limit of 4.1 micrograms (µg )/day, which is known to cause reproductive toxicity. However, a later report from the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, Reproductive and Cancer Hazard Assessment Section, suggested that “Exposure at a level 1,000 times greater than the MADL is expected to have no observable effect.”