This notice APPLIES ONLY TO CALIFORNIA CONSUMERS AND NOT TO CONSUMERS IN ANY OTHER STATE, nor any other country.
Californian law requires us to put this notice on our product, if we have any ingredient that tests over 1/1000th of what the World Health Organization terms as “Safe Harbor Levels” of a huge list of chemicals, including naturally occurring minerals.
A large majority if not all organic products will contain a very small percentage of these chemicals simply from the soil they were grown in.
Our products gets tested for harmful chemicals in compliance with the FDA. We test frequently and are always within safe limits with the FDA.
Now, we don’t have to put the warning on shipments anywhere else in the WORLD as the FDA, Europe, and Australasian safe tolerance level for these chemicals is well over our chemical level, and no other state, or country, has this rule like California.
In short, Prop 65 has been criticized heavily at that 1/1000th notification requirement.
However we must comply with the law, so until the Prop 65 legislation changes, our warning sticker is here to stay.
We have included some frequently asked questions and more information below.
What is the California Proposition 65 “warning”?
Proposition 65 (Prop 65) is a California law proposed initially as the Safe Water and Toxic Enforcement Act and approved by voters in 1986. The law was intended to address public concerns in the 1980s when residents started learning more about chemicals and compounds in the environment. This law became commonly known as Prop 65.
CALIFORNIA’S Proposition 65 requires the warning you now see on our label.
This notice APPLIES ONLY TO CALIFORNIA CONSUMERS AND NOT TO CONSUMERS IN ANY OTHER STATE, nor any other country.
PROPOSITION 65: GOOD INTENTIONS, BAD REQUIREMENTS
Prop 65 limits are so low, almost all foods contain amounts higher than allowed:
Here are two examples that should put this in perspective:
Natural green beans contain 28.75 micrograms of lead in a one cup serving, which is an exposure of approximately 50 times the allowed Prop 65 levels.
Natural spinach contains approximately 5.2 micrograms of lead in a typical adult serving size which is an exposure that exceeds Prop 65 levels by 10 times.
If you were to have a serving of green beans, a serving of spinach, and a serving of brussels sprouts in a day (all grown on natural, clean soils) you could be taking in 80 times the Prop 65 limit.
What kinds of food are affected?
Almost all foods contain some level of one or more of the substances recognized by the State of California. In most cases, the exposure levels established by Prop 65 are less than what occurs naturally in fruits, vegetables, and even drinking water. The Proposition 65 exposure standards are so strict that certain natural foods such as yams, turnips, apples, tomatoes, artichokes, carrots, cucumbers, green beans, lettuce, spinach, and potatoes, provide exposures in excess of Prop 65 limits. However, food producers are not required to provide Prop 65 notices.
Should I be worried about consuming natural products?
Proteins, plants, and minerals all are well-known to contain substances that exceed those allowed exposures on the Prop 65 list. Naturally grown plants absorb metals and other trace chemicals from the soil in which they are grown. For example, Prop 65 sets a safe harbor limit of 0.5 mcg of lead per serving, but this limit is far below the amount of lead naturally found in many fruits and vegetables grown on clean, non-contaminated soils. In 2009 the State of California conducted its own food crop soil-lead-uptake analysis (Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 129:212-220), and California’s experts found that the most commonly consumed vegetables (from 70 different locations), averaged nearly four times the Prop 65 lead limit per serving.
When compared with the Prop 65 standards, each serving of potatoes, lettuce, wheat, carrots and many other vegetables would require a lead warning.
Remember that Prop 65 regulates exposures, not concentrations and not actual harm or injury. Natural proteins, for example, naturally have high levels of lead. Any process to remove the lead would destroy the protein. All products fall within FDA suggested guidelines for any/all of the chemicals listed by Prop 65 and can be safely consumed.
We comply with the law, and until any legislative changes occur, we will continue to place Prop 65 Warnings on relevant products sold to or in the State of California.