Why is There Lead in My Balsamic Vinegar?
Do you ever read the fine print on your vinegar? I certainly did not, until one day I noticed my organic balsamic vinegar had a Proposition 65 warning! In fine print, the label reads:
This product contains lead, a chemical known to the State of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm.
There’s lead in my vinegar! Sure, I accept there is lead in my children’s toys, but in the vinegar we love on our salads…that’s alarming! According to Napa Valley Naturals, makers of my favorite organic olive oil and balsamic vinegar,
All balsamic and red wine vinegars contain naturally occurring lead. Lead is naturally absorbed by all things that grow in the ground, including the grapes used to make vinegar. Most balsamic and red wine vinegars have lead levels equal to or less than 34 parts per million. An average person would need to consume 1 to 2 cups of balsamic or red wine vinegar per day to reach the Proposition 65 lead level minimum threshold, which includes a 1000-fold safety margin.
This may be true, that the lead level is low in balsamic vinegar, but in combination with all of the other ways my children may be exposed to lead, I am concerned. Also, if lead is naturally absorbed from the soil by plants, wouldn’t all our food contain lead? Why doesn’t my red wine vinegar contain the Proposition 65 warning?
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In 2004, the Environmental Law Foundation of Oakland filed suit against vinegar makers and sellers. “There are balsamics that don’t have elevated lead, which tells us it (safe manufacturing) can be done,” said James Wheaton, head of the Environmental Law Foundation. This is one of the first cases to use California’s right-to-know law into the grocery store.
There is some debate as to the cause of lead in balsamic vinegar, whether it is naturally occurring or a part of manufacturing. Tangergreen writes,
I have encountered two explanations of this, the first being that lead gets into vinegar during the process of manufacturing, and the other being that wine grapes suck lead up out of the ground. There seems to be some bias behind both of these explanations, leaving us, the consumer, with only the fact that there is enough lead in red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar to merit the proposition 65 warning.
The manufacturing of balsamic vinegar is similar to the production of fine wine. Does that mean there is lead in my wine? Well, at least my gasoline is lead-free.
Image courtesy of WorldPantry.com.
Lead is leached by acidic foods especially. I would wonder if there was some lead somewhere in the processing equipment.
I have heard a story about a man who had severe lead poisoning from making wine in an old bathtub- another source of lead.
I hope Sean is correct about the vinegar/acidity concentrating the lead from the soil. But I wonder about my favorite grape juice, Concord and if it is sufficiently acidic to concentrate lead…
There is a lot of information about lead in Bill Bryson’s very readable paperback “A Short History of Nearly Everything,” which i’ll quote here:
“Clair Patterson (who was, first name notwithstaning, an Iowa farm boy by origin) . . . established that we had a lot of lead in the atmosphere-still do, in fact, since lead never goes away- and that about 90 percent of it . . . [came] . . . from automobile exhaust pipes. . . before 1923 there was almost no lead in the atmosphere, and that since that time its level had climed steadily . . . He now made it his life’s quest to get lead taken out of gasoline. . .It would prove to be a hellish campain. Ethyl was a powerful global corportion with many friends in high places. . . to his great credit, Patterson never wavered or buckled. Eventually his efforts led to the introduction of the Clean Air Act of 1970 and finally to the removal from sale of all leaded gasoline in the United States in 1986. Almost immediately lead levels in the blood of Americans fell by 80 percent. But because lead is forever, thos of us alive today have about 625 times more lead in our blood than people did a century ago. The amount of lead in the atmosphere also continues to grow, quite legally, by about a thousand metric tons a year, mostly from mining, smelting, and industrial activities. As for the Ethyl Corporation, it’s still going strong. . .according to its 2001 company accounts, tetraethyl lead (or TEL as it calls it) still accounted for $25.1 million in sales in 2000 (out of overall sales of $795 million). . . In its report the company stated its determination to ‘maximize the cash generated by TEL as ists usage continues to phase down around the world . . .”
So if we want to avoid lead altogether, maybe we just shouldn’t breathe?
To add to my very long previous post, for those who are interested, Bill Bryson’s source for the quote “those of us alive today have about 625 times more lead in our blood than people did a century ago” is “Nation”, March 20, 2000.
Thanks you thank you so much for this info
Barbra :O)
This report is incomplete and irresponsible.
In this report, there are no brand comparisons, no lead measurements, no clarification on balsamic vinegar, and no comparisons between foods with lead and that consumed by using leaded crystal or china.
Get better data before you write an article, Ms. Lance. You’ve done a disservice here thinking you were being *of* service.
Lead is in food. Lots and lots and lots of different foods.
For example, have you compared the lead in balsamic vinegar to that found in potatoes, which always have lead? Potatoes in households are a lot more common than balsamic vinegar.
And, is the amount of lead an infinitesimal one or a harmful one? Give us some numbers to compare — is this an extremely small amount of lead that would be in *anything* that was grown on soil?
And what’s the difference between the amount of lead in different foods and the amount of lead leached into foods from china or leaded glass crystal?
Even more basic — What kind of balsamic vinegar are we talking about? Made where? From what? In the United States, most balsamic vinegar is wine vinegar with caramel color.
Or by balsamic vinegar do we mean the real deal — aged balsamico traditionale — from Modena, Italy?
Does that balsamic have lead?
Ms. Lance, do you mean that? Specifics make all the difference. They’re nowhere in your report. Please perform due diligence as a journalist before your write.