Why is there a warning label on the packaging of pHresh Superfoods?
This notice APPLIES ONLY TO CALIFORNIA CONSUMERS AND NOT TO CONSUMERS IN ANY OTHER STATE, nor any other country in the world.
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.
In order to inform our customers, we now label our California packaging for several of our organic products with a California Proposition 65 warning.
California Prop 65 is California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986. Companies are required to place a warning label on any product they sell within the state of California if it exceeds the level that the State has established as risk free for a list of over eight hundred chemicals including some naturally occurring heavy metal minerals.
Safety and quality are top priorities for pHresh Superfoods. No chemicals are ever used in the cultivation or production of our products. All of pHresh Superfoods are certified organic and grown with traditional, organic agricultural practices. The elements that triggered this California Prop 65 labeling requirement are lead and cadmium. Lead and cadmium are naturally occurring minerals and are present in soil around the globe to varying degrees and as such can be absorbed by plants grown in that soil.
The standards for lead and cadmium as set by California through Prop 65 are specific to the state of California and are more stringent than what is required by the World Health Organization (WHO), European Union (EU), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Canada and the Unites States Pharmacopeia (USP).
Many common foods have trace levels of lead and cadmium, including dairy, meats, grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and canned or prepared foods. In many instances these common foods exceed the established Prop 65 standards.
Source: US Food and Drug Administration, Total Diet Study Market Baskets 2006 through 2011
Are pHresh Superfoods safe?
Safety and quality are top priorities for pHresh Products. We source the highest quality, organic, nutrient-dense foods from around the world and focus on having the best tools and systems in place to ensure quality, safety and consistency for each of the products we produce.
A Perspective on Key Units of Measurement:
Contaminants are often expressed in micrograms (mcg). When considering the levels of naturally occurring elements such as lead or cadmium found in food it is helpful to put these units of measurement into perspective.
Microgram (mcg): A microgram is one/one millionth of a gram. To put this unit into perspective, a penny weighs 2 grams. To get a microgram, you would need to divide the penny into 2 million pieces. A microgram is one of those two million pieces.