Beware Cinnamon From These Stores

Steer clear of ground cinnamon sold at Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, and other discount stores if you want to avoid lead. The Food and Drug Administration issued an alert Wednesday warning that brands of ground cinnamon sold at those two chains as well as La Superior, SuperMercados, Save A Lot, SF Supermarket, Patel Brothers, and La Joya Morelense contain levels of lead that could be unsafe, Local 10 reports. The FDA says it has recommended the manufacturers of the affected products recall them, though it notes one company has not yet been reached, CBS News reports. Family Dollar and Dollar Tree say the affected products have already been pulled from shelves. Anyone who has an affected product should return it to the store or toss it, officials say.

A complete list of the affected brands, as well as images of all the packaging, can be found at the FDA website, which lists lot or code numbers that were affected for each brand. There is a heightened concern around lead toxicity after a recent recall of lead-tainted applesauce, which resulted in 468 people, mostly children, suffering from lead poisoning. The ground cinnamon alert comes after the FDA, in the wake of that incident, launched a "targeted survey" of cinnamon products for sale in discount stores. The concentration of lead found in the ground cinnamon is much lower than that found in the applesauce, but prolonged exposure to lead at any level can have health consequences, especially for fetuses, infants, and young children. (More lead stories.)