The Facts Behind Accusations That Lindt Chocolate Contains Dangerous Heavy Metals

Rumors about allegedly unsafe levels of heavy metals in Lindt chocolate bars have circulated for years, with claims dating back as far as 2016 (archived). More recently, consumers have taken to platforms such as TikTok (archived) to discuss the chocolate's ingredients in light of a 2023 class action lawsuit with the allegations.

(TikTok user @lilwitchhhhh)

For example, in a November 2024 TikTok video, someone claims:

Welcome back to another episode of what I can no longer eat in the United States of America. We're adding Lindt chocolate to that list because apparently they've got lead and like, cadmium or Cadbury egg, I don't know, something in their chocolate that's not supposed to be there, okay, and they wanted to say: "Well we never said that lead wasn't in our chocolate." [...]

However, Snopes has not been able to independently prove whether Lindt chocolate contains heavy metals. While at least two consumer watchdog groups have issued reports to supposedly substantiate the assertion and the class action lawsuit remains ongoing, the company refutes the claim that there's anything unsafe about their products. There was no undisputed evidence for us to determine the claim's legitimacy ourselves. Therefore, we rate this claim unproven.

One of the consumer watchdog groups is Consumer Reports, a nonprofit that aims to help people make informed purchasing choices. In 2022, Consumer Reports published a report describing allegedly dangerous heavy metals in products by multiple chocolate manufacturers, including Lindt. For the analysis, the agency used California's standards for regulating metals in foods and measured lead and cadmium in the products, specifically. The Lindt bars in question were the Excellence Dark Chocolate 70% Cocoa and the Excellence Dark Chocolate 85% Cocoa.

Meanwhile, the class action lawsuit repeated the Consumer Reports' findings — a suit to which the company responded, rejecting the claims. Filed in a New York District Court, the suit not only alleged that the Swiss chocolatier (Lindt & Sprüngli (USA) Inc. in the suit)) sold products with unsafe levels of lead and cadmium (specifically, the 70% and 85% cocoa bars) but it also claimed that the company failed to disclose that information to consumers. The complaint says:

1. This action seeks to recover damages and injunctive relief for Defendant's continuing failure to disclose to consumers that certain Lindt dark chocolate products (collectively, the "Products"), contain unsafe levels of lead and cadmium (collectively "Heavy Metals"). 

[... Consumers] who purchase the Products are injured by Defendant's acts and omissions concerning the presence (or risk) of Heavy Metals. No reasonable consumer would know, or have reason to know, that the Products contain (or risk containing) Heavy Metals.

Lindt claims its "entire line of products complies with all applicable safety standards," and it has followed disclosure guidelines. A Lindt spokesperson told Snopes:

We disagree with the allegations made in a current U.S. lawsuit. Lindt & Sprüngli quality and safety procedures ensure that our entire line of products complies with all applicable safety standards and declaration requirements and are safe to consume.

In the US, specifically in California, there is a declaration requirement for dark chocolate. When a product contains cadmium and/or lead in quantities above a defined limit, the product must declare such substances. Lindt chocolate does not exceed such threshold.

Lindt tried and failed to have the 2023 class action lawsuit dismissed. The case's latest development, as of this writing, occurred on Nov. 19, 2024, and stated that the plaintiffs and defendant were "in the early stages of discovery." 

It's not uncommon for foods to contain small traces of cadmium or lead, though regulatory agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), try to keep levels under certain maximums to keep products safe. Cadmium, a known carcinogenic, ends up in cocoa beans and chocolate because of how cocoa bean plants absorb nutrients from soil to grow. Meanwhile, lead, which can cause brain and central nervous system damage in young children, ends up in chocolate through the post-harvest processing of cocoa beans.

Currently, the U.S. does not have national standards for regulating cadmium and lead in food, though the FDA has launched an initiative called Closer to Zero to work towards that goal, as well as to regulate arsenic and mercury. The project aims to define what the FDA calls "action levels" of chemicals — or, amounts at which the FDA would aim to "lower levels of chemical contaminants in food when a certain level of a contaminant is unavoidable" — and to share those numbers with food manufacturers.

What Consumer Watchdog Groups Reportedly Found

The lawsuit against Lindt followed the study by Consumer Reports, as well as a separate analysis by As You Sow, an advocacy group that says its goal is promoting environmental and social corporate responsibility. 

In 2022, both organizations determined that Lindt's 70% and 85% cocoa bars contained levels of lead and cadmium that exceed California's "maximum allowable dose levels" (MADLs) — state-mandated metrics under Proposition 65, a set of guidelines that require businesses to inform Californians of chemicals known to cause certain health effects.

According to California's standards, the maximum allowable doses for cadmium and lead daily are 4.1 micrograms and 0.5 micrograms, respectively. (The state describes those measurements as general guidelines and says they're not linked to caloric intake or weight.) 

The tests by Consumer Reports and As You Sow found that one ounce (Consumer Reports) or one serving size (As You Sow) of the 70% bar exceeded the state's maximum allowable dose for cadmium daily but tested below the daily max for lead. Meanwhile, the 85% bar had the opposite results: It tested below the cadmium max but exceeded the lead max. 

(Consumer Reports)

(As You Sow)

Consumer Reports and As You Sow completed the studies using a method called "inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)" — a technique that measures elements in a test sample. Additionally, Consumer Reports used what scientists call "triple quadrupole inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (IC-QQQ-MS)" — a process that can detect even smaller traces of of a particular element. Agilent, a company that provides equipment for these kinds of tests, said the latter technique can provide "around ten times lower detection limits for most elements."

However, the results by both groups, Consumer Reports and As You Sow, were comparable.

In short, both tests concluded that the bars supposedly contain at least one metal in an amount that surpasses California's maximums.

The organizations said they chose to compare the products' ingredients to California's standards because the state supposedly has the most/most restrictive guidelines. However, as the National Law Review found in 2019, California's Proposition 65 that established the metals' maximum allowable doses has spawned similar proposals in states including Washington and New York. 

It's Not Just Lindt Facing These Accusations

Lindt was one of multiple chocolate manufacturers that Consumer Reports and As You Sow screened for cadmium and lead in its 2022 study. And it was not the only company to test positive for levels above California's maximums. 

In 2018, a peer-reviewed study by researchers from the FDA looked at cadmium and lead in cocoa powder, dark chocolate, milk chocolate and cocoa nib products and identified items with cadmium levels of up to 3.15 micrograms per kilogram and lead levels of up to 0.38 micrograms per kilogram. In other words, according to that research, the heavy metals are present in a wide variety of chocolate products.

Later, a peer-reviewed study in 2019 found that Americans consume an average of 4.63 micrograms of cadmium per day. (That average exceeds California's recommended maximum of 4.1 micrograms per day.) The cadmium came from a variety of sources, including everyday foods like rice and bread.

A 2018-2020 FDA survey of foods commonly consumed by people in the U.S. found that items with the highest cadmium concentrations were spinach, sunflower seeds and cocoa powder, while foods with the highest lead concentrations were baking powder and cocoa powder.

Dr. Melissa Melough, a co-author of the 2019 study on cadmium intake, told the New York Times in 2019 that consumers who are concerned about lead and cadmium in dark chocolate could consider eating no more than an ounce per day and investigating alternatives with lower levels of both heavy metals.