Toxic superfood alert: Organic mangosteen powder found heavily contaminated with lead

Tuesday, April 01, 2014 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: mangosteen powder, heavy metals, lead contamination

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(NaturalNews) USDA certified organic mangosteen powder imported into the USA from Thailand and sold as a bulk material to numerous superfood manufacturers and retailers has been confirmed at the Natural News Forensic Food Labs to be heavily contaminated with alarming levels of lead (see laboratory results below). While the Certificate of Analysis (C of A) for the material claims the mangosteen powder contains just .056 ppm of lead (56 ppb), triple lab testing by Mike Adams at the Natural News Forensic Food Labs has confirmed the powder actually contains over 11 ppm of lead (11,000+ ppb), a truly alarming concentration of a toxic substance.

This heavily contaminated organic mangosteen powder is currently offered for sale in bulk quantities to anyone who wishes to buy it, repackage it, and retail it in the USA. This material could theoretically appear in any mangosteen product sold throughout the USA, including superfood powders, bulk powders sold on Amazon.com and even in mangosteen beverages.

Nearly 100 times more toxic lead

A "normal" mangosteen powder will typically show only 0.12 to 0.17 ppm of lead. But this USDA certified organic mangosteen powder contains nearly 100 times the typical levels of lead (and is obviously contaminated). This also tells you that in some cases, "organic" means nothing at all.

Mangosteen is a nutrient-rich superfood typically imported from Thailand. Rich in xanthones, mangosteen is frequently blended into smoothies and used to boost the nutrient density of smoothie recipes.

Here are the actual (average) lab results for this USDA certified organic mangosteen powder. Tests were conducted by myself, Mike Adams, lab director of the Natural News Forensic Food Labs, using ICP-MS instrumentation, EPA-derived methodologies and rigorous external calibrations:

Aluminum: 1.3 ppm (normal range)
Arsenic: .032 ppm (normal range)
Cadmium: .292 ppm (slightly high range)
Mercury: .003 ppm (very low, near zero)
Lead: 11.4 ppm (extremely high, heavily contaminated)

The level of lead in this material earns it an "F" rating at Low Heavy Metals Verified.

Which organs are affected by lead? Click here to see a visual representation of which organs are damaged by it.

Natural News contacted the importer / reseller of this particular mangosteen powder to inform them of these laboratory findings. To our knowledge, no action has yet been taken and no recall has been announced.

Importers routinely sell contaminated superfoods while failing to test them

Superfood importers routinely fail to test the products they import for heavy metals. Because laboratory testing costs money, many simply skip the tests and blindly sell bulk products to whatever buyer is willing to purchase them. Because most superfood retailers also don't test their products for contamination, they gladly buy and sell these heavily contaminated products that can contribute to serious harm in their own customers.

When it comes to Certificates of Analysis, some companies simply produce counterfeit documents that claim very low levels of heavy metals which are entirely unsubstantiated. As an example of this, the mangosteen powder we tested at 11 ppm lead was claimed to be just .056 ppm lead according to the documentation.

The lead levels in this powder, in other words, were nearly 200 times higher than what was claimed in the Certificate of Analysis. And that puts this product into the category of likely FRAUD, not merely an oversight.

As is often the case, this particular Certificate of Analysis was likely fabricated. I've seen this time and time again across the natural products industry, but especially for materials imported from India, China, Thailand and other Asian nations. (Usually, materials sourced from the USA, Canada and the EU are extremely clean. We've also seen consistently clean materials coming from some South American countries such as Bolivia. We recently tested a coffee from Panama that was also extremely clean.)

Is YOUR mangosteen powder contaminated with lead?

The problem with all this is that this organic mangosteen bulk powder could be purchased by almost anyone who repackages it and sells it under their own brand. So there's no way to know which brands are contaminated unless they are tested.

Most mangosteen retailers never test their mangosteen products for heavy metals. Thus, even retailers who sell this material may have no idea of its level of contamination. They usually prefer to blindly close their eyes and believe the Certificate of Analysis, saying to themselves, "Well gee, if the C of A says it's clean, it must be clean!"

So if you have mangosteen powder at home right now, what you need to do is go straight to the manufacturer of that product and ask them, straight up, "Did YOU test this material yourself? If so, what did you find?" Send them the link to this article so they know what's up.

If they did not test the mangosteen they are selling, they could be selling you heavily contaminated material and poisoning you with lead, a heavy metal that causes permanent brain damage.

If they did test the material, ask them to show you the test results for your specific lot number. Every food package is required by law to have a lot number printed on it, and current FDA manufacturing regulations require EVERY production lot to be tested for product purity.

If that manufacturer has not tested each specific lot for heavy metals, then demand a refund! They are failing to adhere to fundamental manufacturing ethics, and they are putting your health and safety at risk! There is absolutely no excuse for a superfood manufacturer to not test every production lot for heavy metals. Here at Natural News, we test every incoming material and every manufactured lot, and if the numbers aren't right, we don't sell it, period! (Because I don't sell what I wouldn't eat myself, and I'm not about to swallow toxic metals.)

Just because it's organic doesn't mean it's safe

"What Ralph Nader has done for consumer protection, Mike Adams is doing on behalf of consumer health," wrote journalist Linda Cameron in a recent Examiner article. "As activists, the two have much in common. Both have written prolifically on environmentally charged subjects, such as mercury poisoning and pesticides. Also, both have faced and confronted challenges to their convictions."

What I never expected to happen, however, was that the very same industry I have long promoted would turn out to produce products with such high levels of toxic elements. It's shameful, really, that certified organic superfoods often contain alarming levels of toxic heavy metals -- far higher levels than what you'd find in a vaccine, by the way. It's also shameful that the USDA allows these products to be labeled "certified organic" in the first place.

That's why I want to educate you on what's safe and what's not. My hope is that the information you find here on Natural News is not only totally unique and simply unavailable anywhere in the world, but that this information empowers you to be healthier happier and more productive in your life.

Please understand that nobody else on the planet is testing off-the-shelf nutritional products and releasing the results for free. I have taken on this immense task because I truly believe this is important work for the future of humanity. Clean food means healthy babies, and healthy babies give us real hope for the future of human civilization. If we don't stop the poisoning, after all, we will not survive for much longer on this planet.