If you served hot cocoa from packets over Christmas, you might have poisoned everyone….. a little. Consumer Reports just put out a list of powdered cocoa that contains high amounts of lead and cadmium. Great Value Walmart milk chocolate flavor hot cocoa, Starbucks hot cocoa classic, Trader Joe’s organic hot cocoa, and Nestlé rich milk chocolate flavor all had excessive amounts in them. Lead can mess up your brain, kidneys, and reproductive organs. Cadmium can affect your immune system and kidneys. Now, one or two packets aren’t going to have affect you right away. But, they aren’t helping and raise your risk of problems.
The chocolate beans are getting the metals from the soil they’re grown in. Add that to the fact that the FDA doesn’t have standards for heavy metals popping up in consumables and there you have the reason why it’s being allowed to be sold.