Lead is everywhere in our food; huge risk-perception gap lingers
According to an October 25, 2025 report by WebMD, from protein powder to lunch kits and dark chocolate, lead is everywhere in our food. The report quotes Dr. Andrea Love a biomedical scientist and author of newsletter Immunologic, “lead is a component of the earth,” a component of our periodic table, and there’s no avoiding it living on earth.
There’s no safe dose of lead, but there’s no avoiding it living on earth.
There’s no safe dose of lead, but low doses are not as bad as higher doses, and that’s what’s relevant,” adds David Roepik, author and former Harvard teacher in his WebMD interview.
America’s faith in food safety has plummeted. A Gallup poll this summer showed over half of respondents had a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence that officials can keep the food supply safe – down from more than two-thirds in 2019. An Axios/Ipsos American Health Index poll released in October showed 69% of respondents don’t believe FDA assurances that foods containing pesticides or artificial dyes are safe to eat. All the while, threshold for lead will continue to lower as instruments get more sensitive,” adds Adam Simpson, PhD, whose lab is at the University of Southern California. Currently, The FDA sets the IRL (interim reference level) is 10 times lower than what is needed to reach the blood reference value.
The good news in any case is lead and dye awareness in foods are at an all time high; consumers just need not overreact.
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