The Safe Spice Shopping Guide

The problem: Lead. In one Boston-area study all 32 store-bought jars tested contained it, half were above the 0.1 ppm the FDA recommends as a maximum for lead in children's candy, and two ran up to 1,000 times it — and some sellers add lead chromate (a paint pigment) on purpose to brighten dull batches. There is no federal limit or action level for lead in culinary spices at all — the FDA has set them for bottled water, juice, candy and baby food, but not for the spice rack.

Buy instead: a powder brand that publishes heavy-metal testing, or whole turmeric root you grate fresh.

Cowell et al., Public Health Reports 2017 (32 Boston-area samples) · Forsyth et al., Environmental Research 179, 2019 (lead chromate in 7 of 9 Bangladeshi producing districts) · FDA, Lead in Food and Foodwares & Guidance for Industry: Lead in Candy, 2006

The problem: These are the two worst performers anyone has published on. When Consumer Reports tested 126 products across 15 types of dried herbs and spices in 2021, oregano and thyme were the only two where every single product came back at levels their experts called concerning for children. Not a bad brand — the whole category. The likeliest reason is botanical rather than criminal. Heavy metals get into food from the soil and water a plant grew in, and how much any given plant takes up varies by species — in this testing the leafy herbs clustered at the bad end while the seeds and barks did better. Nobody is adulterating your oregano. (That leaf-versus-seed pattern is what the results show; the mechanism behind it is our reading, not a stated finding.)

Buy instead: grow and dry your own if you cook with them often — that is Consumer Reports' own first recommendation, and a pot of either on a windowsill is about as hard as keeping basil alive. Failing that, use a lighter hand: their risk threshold was roughly three quarters of a teaspoon a day, every day, of a product that tested high. An occasional pinch in a ragu is not the thing to worry about.

Consumer Reports, November 2021 — 126 products across 15 types of dried herbs and spices; one third carried arsenic, lead and cadmium at levels CR judged a health concern for children.

The problem: Most supermarket "cinnamon" is cassia, which is naturally high in coumarin. EFSA sets a tolerable daily intake of 0.1 mg per kg of bodyweight — about 6 mg for a 60 kg adult. Cassia averages around 3,000 mg/kg, so a single teaspoon can reach that limit on its own. The concern is liver effects in sensitive people at high regular intake, usually reversible. True Ceylon cinnamon is very low in it.

Buy instead: Ceylon ("true") cinnamon if you use it daily; keep cassia for the occasional bake.

EFSA / German BfR — coumarin tolerable daily intake 0.1 mg/kg bw/day; cassia vs Ceylon coumarin content.

The problem: Saffron is among the most adulterated spices on earth. Cheap "saffron" is routinely bulked with safflower, dyed corn silk, or colored plant fibers — you're paying gold prices for hay.

Buy instead: whole red threads (not powder) from a seller who states origin and grade. If it's cheap, it isn't saffron.

Whole-thread form + stated origin is the standard fraud check. (General guidance.)

The problem: Bright red ground spices have a record of illegal Sudan-dye adulteration and, when badly stored, aflatoxin (a mold toxin). Color this vivid is a flag, not a feature.

Buy instead: reputable brands with testing; buy small amounts and keep them dry and dark.

EU rapid-alert Sudan-dye recalls; aflatoxin is a documented spice contaminant. (General guidance.)

The problem: Same leaf problem as oregano and thyme, but not quite as bleak — in the 2021 testing all or almost all dried basil products came back high, though at least one brand tested clean. Which means it is worth caring which jar you buy, and there is no way to tell from the label.

Buy instead: fresh basil where the dish allows it, or grow it — it is the easiest herb on this page to keep alive. If you buy dried, buy from a seller that publishes heavy-metal testing.

Consumer Reports, November 2021 — 126 products across 15 types of dried herbs and spices; one third carried arsenic, lead and cadmium at levels CR judged a health concern for children.

The problem: Mixed results in the 2021 testing — several ground cumins were clean, several were not. A seed spice should do better than a leaf, so this looks like a sourcing-and-processing story rather than a plant one, which is exactly the kind that a seller who tests can fix and a seller who doesn't, can't.

Buy instead: whole cumin seed, toasted and ground as you need it. Rule one on this page applies straight down the middle here — whole seed is both harder to cut and better tasting.

Consumer Reports, November 2021 — 126 products across 15 types of dried herbs and spices; one third carried arsenic, lead and cadmium at levels CR judged a health concern for children.

The problem: Ground ginger came back mixed in the 2021 testing — one brand clean, most others showing something. Ginger is a rhizome grown in soil, so it has the same route in as turmeric, its close relative.

Buy instead: fresh root, grated. It keeps for weeks in the fridge, freezes well, and the flavor is not in the same league as the powder. Same argument the turmeric file makes, and for the same reason.

Consumer Reports, November 2021 — 126 products across 15 types of dried herbs and spices; one third carried arsenic, lead and cadmium at levels CR judged a health concern for children.

The problem: Not heavy metals — identity. A 2017 quality-control study of 30 samples found that the name "bay leaf" is used in commerce for at least five different botanicals: Laurus nobilis (true bay, the Mediterranean one), Cinnamomum tamala (Indian tejpat), Litsea glaucescens (Mexican bay), Pimenta racemosa (West Indian bay) and Umbellularia californica (California bay), plus Syzygium polyanthum from Indonesia. They are not interchangeable. The study notes they differ in aroma and flavor and that substitution carries potential health risk — California bay in particular is far more pungent than the leaf a European recipe means.

Buy instead: whole leaves with Laurus nobilis on the label, not just the word "bay." Whole rather than crushed, so you can see what you have. Or grow one — see below.

Raman, Bussmann & Khan, Planta Medica, 2017 — "Which Bay Leaf is in Your Spice Rack? A Quality Control Study", 30 samples

The honest answer: we don't know. Rosemary was not among the fifteen types in the 2021 heavy-metal testing, and we could not find published testing specific to dried rosemary anywhere else. That is not the same as saying it is clean — it means nobody has looked, publicly, and neither we nor anyone else can tell you where it sits. We would rather say that than pad the page.

What we'd do: buy from a seller that publishes testing, on the same principle as everything else here. Or grow it, which is the easiest thing on this page to do — see below.

No published testing found. Absence of data, not evidence of safety.

The good one: Cloves are hard to fake and genuinely useful — eugenol, the compound that makes them smell like cloves, has been in dental cement since the 1890s and is still in use today.

Buy: whole, lab-tested cloves; grind as needed.

Markowitz et al., Oral Surgery Oral Medicine Oral Pathology, 1992 — biologic properties of eugenol and zinc oxide-eugenol

The good one: Pooling 19 clinical trials, fenugreek lowered HbA1c by 0.54 of a point (95% CI 0.28–0.80) and fasting glucose by 20.3 mg/dL (95% CI 14.0–26.7). Real, but modest — a nudge, not a treatment. The active fiber is in the seed, not the soaking water.

Buy: whole methi seeds; soak and eat them. General information, not medical advice — and tell your doctor if you're on blood-sugar medication.

Heliyon, 2024 — systematic review & meta-analysis of fenugreek in type 2 diabetes, 19 trials

The good one: Worth saying out loud, because spice-safety writing is nearly all alarm and that is its own kind of dishonesty: seven of the fifteen types Consumer Reports tested had no product above the concern threshold. Every brand passed. Those seven are black pepper, coriander, curry powder, garlic powder, saffron, sesame seed and white pepper.

Buy: normally. Whole peppercorns in a grinder still beat pre-ground on flavor, but that is a cooking argument, not a safety one. If you want to lean your cooking toward the low-risk end of the rack, lean on this list.

Consumer Reports, November 2021 — 126 products across 15 types of dried herbs and spices; one third carried arsenic, lead and cadmium at levels CR judged a health concern for children.