Lead Safe Mama tested one batch in 2024-07 and 23 ppb cadmium. Whether the next batch from the same shelf is similar is the actual question. Here is the breakdown.
One Lead Safe Mama ICP-MS test on a single batch of Annie's Cheddar Bunnies was published in 2024-07. It came back positive for at least one heavy metal above her detection threshold. The single result is real for that batch. It does not tell you whether the next bag from the same shelf is similar. Brand consistency on heavy metals is a marketing claim, not a chemistry one.
Cadmium: 23 ppb × 30g = 0.69 µg per serving.
Single retail units of this product are available individually at standard retail. A current single-unit price is around $4.99. The "minimum order / sold by case" framing on Lead Safe Mama's budget page does not apply to this product.
From Lead Safe Mama's published lab report. One batch, one ICP-MS panel, one moment in time. The number is real for that bag. It is not a brand verdict.
| Tested by | Lead Safe Mama (sent to SimpleLab for ICP-MS) |
| Date published | 2024-07 |
| Lead (Pb) | non-detect ppb |
| Cadmium (Cd) | 23 ppb |
| Arsenic (As) | non-detect ppb |
| Sample size (n) | 1 batch (single bag from a single retail purchase) |
| Source | Lead Safe Mama post → |
| Product | Annie's Organic Cheddar Bunnies |
| Net weight per unit | 213 g (7.5 oz) |
| Serving size used in dose math | 30 g |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Single-unit retail availability | Yes. Cadmium 23 ppb is 4.6x the action level. Single 7.5oz box at every Target/Walmart. Pb/As/Hg non-detect. |
| Current retail price | ~$4.99 — where to buy |
Purity Labs publishes a price list. The heavy-metals panel used for this work, test CH114 (lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium), is $80 per sample with digestion included (Purity Laboratories 2023-2024 price list, puritylabsinc.com). Lead Safe Mama's budget page solicits a flat $495 per-product Community Sponsorship rate, the same figure across every product regardless of the actual test or result. The documented lab cost is $80. Full sourcing and the line-by-line math are on our Lead Safe Mama receipts page.
1. Don't make a brand decision off one batch. The 2024-07 Lead Safe Mama result describes one bag at one moment. Cereal grain absorbs metals unevenly across fields. Spices vary by source country. Same brand, different lot, can disagree by an order of magnitude.
2. If you want a sealed-sample retest, the Lead Lottery model is $100 per panel. Same lab Lead Safe Mama uses (since March 2025, Purity Labs in Lake Oswego, Oregon). Sealed retail unit shipped direct to the lab, factory seal opened only at the lab. 4 to 5× cheaper than her per-product Community Sponsorship rate.
3. Read the broader audit. Our food-testing audit of Lead Safe Mama catalogs 451 of her published tests, identifies which lab signed each report, and walks the math. /pages/contested-foods walks the cases where two samples of the same product produced very different numbers.
If you chip in $100 to the Lead Lottery for this product, we buy a sealed retail unit, ship it sealed to Purity Labs, and publish the result side by side with the Lead Safe Mama number on record. Same lab. Real chain of custody. No anonymization.
The Lead Lottery → Contested test results →Lead Safe Mama published a single ICP-MS result in 2024-07 reporting lead, cadmium, and/or arsenic above her detection thresholds. The result is real for that bag. It does not tell you what the next bag from the same shelf will read. Single-batch testing on packaged food is one snapshot, not a brand verdict. The dose math (ppb × serving size) is the only way to translate a ppb number into actual exposure.
Single retail units are available individually. Most common SKU is around $4.99 at retail. Single-unit purchases are the standard option.
Not in our database. We have not yet received a sealed retail unit to retest at Purity Labs. If you have one, mail it. The Lead Lottery model funds one Purity Labs ICP-MS panel and one sealed retail unit for $100, which is roughly 5× cheaper than the equivalent Lead Safe Mama Community Sponsorship rate ($495 per product). Lead Lottery details.
2.2 µg per day for children, 8.8 µg per day for adults (FDA Interim Reference Level). The IRL is an action threshold for ongoing federal monitoring, not a 'safe level' (no safe level of lead exposure exists for children per CDC). Dose math: lead in µg = (ppb × serving size in grams) ÷ 1000.
Two reasons. First, batch-to-batch variability is real in any food product. Same brand sources from different farms, different harvests, different countries, different factory runs. Cereal grain absorbs lead and cadmium unevenly across fields. Spices vary by source country. The same brand can change its ppb signature between lots, sometimes by an order of magnitude. Second, chain-of-custody differences matter. A sample opened and re-packaged in a home kitchen before it reaches the lab is not the same sample as one shipped sealed direct to the lab. Both are valid lab data, but they describe different things. Read the contested-foods cases.
Lead crosses the placenta during pregnancy, builds in your child's growing bones, sits in the skeleton for decades, and releases back into circulation during menopause and age-related bone resorption. Cutting today's exposure is the only thing that meaningfully changes the lifetime trajectory.
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