U.S. flag An official website of the United States government

On Oct. 1, 2024, the FDA began implementing a reorganization impacting many parts of the agency. We are in the process of updating FDA.gov content to reflect these changes.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration
  1. Home
  2. Food
  3. Recalls, Outbreaks & Emergencies
  4. Alerts, Advisories & Safety Information
  5. FDA Public Health Alert for Additional Ground Cinnamon Product Due to Presence of Elevated Levels of Lead
  1. Alerts, Advisories & Safety Information

FDA Public Health Alert for Additional Ground Cinnamon Product Due to Presence of Elevated Levels of Lead

En Español (Spanish)

July 25, 2024

Audience

  • All consumers
  • All retailers

Product

Through product testing conducted by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets and confirmed by the FDA, the FDA has determined that the ground cinnamon product listed below contains elevated levels of lead and that exposure to this product may be unsafe. The FDA is advising consumers to throw away and not to buy this ground cinnamon product.

Distributor Retailers Brand
Names		 Lot Codes Lead
Concentration
(ppm)		 Product Image
El Servidor Corp
of Elmhurst, NY		 Mannan Supermarket, Inc.

El Servidor

Recall
Announcement

 None 20
El Servidor Corp Ground Cinnamon

The FDA has recommended that the distributor voluntarily recall this product. The FDA will update this notice with communication from the firm if they voluntarily agree to recall. Please see our initial alert on ground cinnamon products issued March 6, 2024, for a list of additional ground cinnamon products previously recommended for recall.

The FDA is continuing to analyze cinnamon and review sample results received from state partners who have been continuously sampling ground cinnamon at retail for elevated levels of lead. This public health alert will be updated as necessary if the FDA finds that additional products contain elevated levels of lead and that exposure to these products may be unsafe.

Recommendations for Consumers

  • The FDA is advising consumers to stop using and dispose of the ground cinnamon product listed in the table above.
  • Consumers should not eat, sell, or serve the ground cinnamon product listed in the table above and should discard the product.
  • This product has a long shelf life. Consumers should check their homes and discard this product.
  • If there’s suspicion that someone has been exposed to elevated levels of lead, talk to your healthcare provider. Most people have no obvious immediate symptoms of lead exposure.

To report a complaint or adverse event (illness or serious allergic reaction), visit Industry and Consumer Assistance.

Potential Health Effects

Based on FDA’s assessment, consuming this product is likely to contribute to elevated levels of lead in the blood, especially in babies and young children. Protecting children from exposure to lead is particularly important because they are more susceptible to lead toxicity. Most children have no obvious immediate symptoms. Parents and caretakers should consult a healthcare provider if you suspect a child may have been exposed to elevated levels of lead. Short term exposure to elevated lead could result in the following symptoms: headache; abdominal pain/colic; vomiting; anemia. Longer term exposure to elevated lead could result in the following additional symptoms: irritability; lethargy; fatigue; muscle aches or muscle prickling/burning; constipation; difficulty concentrating/muscular weakness; tremor; weight loss.

The potential for adverse health effects from consuming food contaminated with lead varies depending on the level of lead in the food; age of the consumer; length, amount, and frequency of exposure to lead in the food; and other exposures to different sources of lead. For example, the very young are particularly vulnerable to the potential harmful effects from lead exposure because of their smaller body sizes and rapid metabolism and growth.  High levels of exposure to lead in utero, infancy, and early childhood can lead to neurological effects such as learning disabilities, behavior difficulties, and lowered IQ.

FDA’s Advice to Help Protect Against the Effects of Lead

Good nutrition – like meeting the recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans – can help protect against the health effects from exposure to lead. Eating a variety of healthy foods can make it less likely for an individual to be exposed to the same contaminant from the same food many times and helps to provide the range of nutrients needed for health and, for children, healthy development. Having adequate nutrients stored in the body also can help to prevent lead from having harmful effects. To get adequate food variety, FDA recommends that consumers eat many different foods from the five food groups – vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy, and protein foods – and to alternate how often you provide the same food.

Purpose

The FDA is advising consumers to throw away and not to buy the ground cinnamon product listed above because samples of this product were found to contain elevated levels of lead. Based on FDA’s assessment, exposure to this ground cinnamon product may be unsafe and could contribute to elevated levels of lead in the blood.  No illnesses or adverse events have been reported to date in association with this product.

While ground cinnamon products may not be a food targeted to young children, cinnamon is used in many foods young children consume. Consistent with the agency’s Closer to Zero initiative, which focuses on reducing childhood exposure to lead, the agency is recommending voluntary recall of the product listed above because prolonged exposure to the product may be unsafe. Removing this product from the market will prevent it from contributing elevated amounts of lead to the diets of children.

Summary of Problem and Scope

The FDA is taking the additional step in issuing a second public health alert this year for ground cinnamon to ensure the safety of ground cinnamon used in foods that are frequently consumed by babies and young children. While a lead level of 20 ppm is significantly lower than the levels of lead associated with the WanaBana cinnamon apple puree and applesauce products recalled in the fall of 2023, which were between 2,270 and 5,110 ppm lead in the cinnamon, the agency considers this ground cinnamon product to be unsafe for consumption by all babies and young children. 

During the last year, the FDA asked states to prioritize testing of ground cinnamon and other spices, prior to the recall of WanaBana apple puree and applesauce products containing elevated levels of lead and chromium. Following the FDA’s targeted assessment of ground cinnamon products for lead and chromium and the FDA public health alert issued earlier this year, several states provided the FDA with sampling data for samples of ground cinnamon. The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets collected the sample included in this public health alert. The FDA is continuing to review sample results received from state partners who have been continuously sampling ground cinnamon at retail for elevated levels of lead and will update this alert as necessary if the FDA finds that additional products contain elevated levels of lead and that exposure to these products may be unsafe.

FDA Actions

The FDA continues to work with states to test cinnamon sold directly to consumers at retail and to test cinnamon at import. The FDA will continue our activities at import to prevent unsafe cinnamon from reaching consumers in the U.S., including adding firms and products to import alerts where appropriate.

For ingredients and final products that contain cinnamon, the FDA advises both domestic and foreign food suppliers to voluntarily test their products to ensure safety. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the manufacturers and the importers to ensure the safety of the products that enter into the U.S. market. In March 2024, the FDA sent a letter to cinnamon manufacturers, processors, distributors and facility operators in the U.S. reminding them of the requirement to implement controls to prevent contamination from potential chemical hazards in food, including in ground cinnamon products. The FDA will continue to work with firms to ensure they are meeting their responsibilities under provisions of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food rule.

The FDA is also continuing its Toxic Elements monitoring program, which includes testing of a variety of foods including colored spices offered for sale in the U.S. In addition to sampling, as part of the FY2025 Legislative proposal, the FDA is seeking to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) to expressly require industry to conduct testing of final products, including those marketed for consumption by infants and young children, for contaminants and maintain such records of these testing results for FDA inspection.

Additional Information

Back to Top