YES, We Lab Test Our Cacao For Heavy Metals
(approximately a 5 minute read)
For the past 10 years, we’ve lab tested each batch of our cacao for heavy metals, mold, and other toxins. We strive to offer you the cleanest product possible, and to share transparently with you the best info that we have so that you can make informed choices about your own health.
We recently upgraded our lab testing to measure heavy metals in parts per billion for the highest resolution available. While there are many many metals out there to test for, lead and cadmium are the primary metals of concern in cacao where we have known science to back up the impacts. Here we'll share and discuss our results.
We have new test results which we'll be posting shortly, as soon as we receive permission to do so. In the meantime please message our customer support and we'll be happy to share the results with you on an individual basis.
We’re proud to share that our Thriving Tanzania cacao, with a most recent test result of 7ppb lead and 105ppb cadmium, along with non detectable arsenic and mercury, is one of the cleanest cacaos available on the market today (and we’ve looked at a lot of test results). If you are sensitive to heavy metals or pregnant, this is our go to recommendation if you choose to have cacao.
LEAD LATEST UPDATES
Our pure cacaos are very clean where lead is concerned. Especially our Boundless Belize and Thriving Tanzania have extraordinarily low results (<5ppb, and 7ppb, respectively). These extremely low values are due to our remote sourcing and our stringent post harvest controls that avoid contamination due to the airborne and ground based lead dust that is prevalent in many cacao growing regions, primarily from leaded fuel combustion and to a lesser extend from leaded paints. These extraordinarily low levels are also evidence that our manufacturing best practices effectively eliminate any contribution from our equipment on metals levels.
As areas for improvement, we hope to expand our post harvest protocols to our Uplifting Ugandan cacao to further reduce lead levels there (most recently 19ppb), and to measure lead levels in our Connected Colombia and Glowing Guatemala cacao when they come back in stock. With higher resolution testing we also learned in November 2025 that our Vibrant Vitality and Oaxacan Spice cacaos have notably higher lead values (48ppb and 74ppb, respectively) compared to our pure cacaos, which is actually the result of the certain secondary ingredients, like cinnamon and maca root, that are more prone to picking up lead than cacao does. We’ll be putting more focus into our secondary ingredient sourcing to find the lowest lead sources in an attempt to reduce these levels.
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Lead Hazard - Cacao Beans Drying On Ground Near Road with No Roof in Cote d'Ivoire (not ORA)
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Lead Safe - Cacao Beans on Raised and Covered Drying Beds in Belize (ORA)
CADMIUM LATEST UPDATES
As for cadmium, there’s no escaping it in our food system, and our cacao has it too, primarily from soil where the cacao trees grow. Cadmium in soils is both naturally occurring but also contributed to by phosphate fertilizers which are used worldwide, even for organic crops. Remediation of soils to reduce cadmium levels is likely to be a multi-generational effort.
Before you get too worried, one serving of Ora Cacao has comparable cadmium to a serving of potatoes, rice, bread, spinach, or sunflower seeds, please see graph below. So even though cacao is getting a lot of attention for heavy metals right now, the discussion is often missing context. Measuring at very high resolution shows that most adults have low grade lead and cadmium exposure from a variety of dietary sources, cacao being just a small part of the overall picture.
What This Means For Your Health
From a cautious and reductionist perspective, the absolute safest thing to say is don’t eat any chocolate at all to minimize exposure. While this might be the right course of action for the most vulnerable populations, you'd still be getting substantial exposure from other food sources. And there is good news.
Iron, Zinc, and other minerals reduce the absorption of cadmium in the body…both of which are contained in cacao. That’s because our diet functions more as an ecosystem than as an individual component level. Your body can’t tell certain metals apart. In your digestive system, minerals like iron, zinc, and cadmium all use some of the same “doors” to get absorbed. These are little transport proteins that pull needed nutrients like iron from food into your bloodstream.
When your body doesn’t have enough iron or zinc, it opens more of those doors to try to get them. Unfortunately, that also means cadmium can slip through more easily, since the body can’t fully distinguish between them. When you get enough iron and zinc from food (like garlic or cilantro) or supplements, your body keeps those doors “satisfied” — so fewer openings are available for cadmium. Our cacao contains 6% DV of iron and 8% DV of zinc - so the complete mineral composition of cacao itself helps to block cadmium from being absorbed in the first place.
Iron and zinc also help your body safely store or remove cadmium. Iron supports healthy red blood cell production, which uses up the same storage proteins cadmium would otherwise occupy. Zinc helps your body make a protein called metallothionein, which binds to trace metals and keeps them from circulating freely or causing damage. Together, these minerals act like a nutritional shield — so cadmium has nowhere to settle and less chance to build up over time.
Considerations for Pregnancy
During pregnancy, absolutely minimize lead exposure. Much more so than cacao, the biggest environmental hazard for most Americans is lead dust in older buildings that had lead paint. While now outlawed residentially, lead paint is still far more common than most people think, and it can still be used in commercial, marine, and aviation settings. We highly recommend watching this documentary by Tamera Rubin.
There isn’t one clear “safe” level of cadmium during pregnancy. Health authorities like the World Health Organization (WHO) and European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) have set general limits for lifetime cadmium exposure, but these were based mostly on kidney and bone effects in adults—not on pregnancy or fetal development. Scientists haven’t yet agreed on a pregnancy-specific safe daily intake, but it’s likely very low.
Scientists are still studying what very small, real-world dietary exposures mean for developing babies.Newer studies associate prenatal cadmium exposure with lower birth weights and possible effects on how hormones function, indicating that cadmium can cross the placenta in some cases. However, these effects are usually seen at higher exposure levels or in populations with multiple heavy-metal exposures. Researchers can’t yet say whether the trace amounts found in commonly consumed foods like cacao, spinach, rice, or potatoes have meaningful impacts. Diet and nutrition make a big difference. People with adequate iron, zinc, and calcium absorb less cadmium from food. That’s one reason the same diet can affect people differently—nutrition status and soil background matter a lot.
Closing Thoughts
With all of this - we want you to make the most informed decision possible around consumption of cacao and to know the facts and context for heavy metals in our food system. Our aim is to offer you clear, transparent information so that you can make your own choices with the most up to date information.