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From a global shortage to cadmium content, cacao can come with a side of less than savory topics. In this YQA edition, we tackle some of the tougher questions most commonly asked about this beloved superfood.
Do you test your cacao for heavy metals?
All of our superfoods, including our cacao, are tested for heavy metals. Like many organic crops, cacao always carries trace amounts of heavy metals, typically cadmium and lead. These metals are naturally occurring in the earth’s soil—luckily alongside numerous beneficial minerals that cacao is known for, like magnesium, iron, copper, and zinc.
Cacao (or cocoa) powder is the base ingredient for all-things chocolate. The powder itself is made solely from the solids of the cacao bean, and thus carries the highest concentration of heavy metals amongst chocolate products. As the cacao powder is diluted by other ingredients—whether in a chocolate bar, candy, hot cocoa, or brownie—the concentration of heavy metals in the end product decreases, which is why a chocolate-based candy bar might have non-detectable amounts of heavy metals, despite being present in the cacao powder they’re made from.
We use third party, independent labs to test all our cacao products for heavy metals. Typically, we expect to see cadmium and lead present within a small range of what is naturally occurring in the soils of the source country. An unexpected spike heavy metals would be cause for concern—and a reason for us to dig into what might have changed in the farming or processing. For example, in industrialized areas, open-air fermentation of the cacao beans can lead to an increase in lead content from environmental contamination. Happily, we source our cacao from thoroughly vetted, smallholder farmers using organic farming methods. As a result, quality issues of this sort are extremely rare.
To keep our customers informed, we have a Help Center article that is regularly updated with our current average heavy metal test results for our Cacao Powder.
Why did the sourcing of your Cacao Powder change?
In over twenty years of sourcing organic cacao, we've made very few changes along the way. The first was back in 2019, when we moved the sourcing of our primary cacao products—Cacao Powder and Cacao Nibs—to Sierra Leone, where we became early investors in the first growing operation to bring Regenerative Organic Certified® cacao to the market. We were—and still are—incredibly proud to be part of a new way to do agriculture, one that not only produced a premium quality cacao product, but also supported the growers and land that supplied it.
Since then, both we and the Sierra Leone project have grown. However, our need for cacao has outpaced their production, making it impossible to obtain all of the cacao we need from their crops. For that reason, beginning in early 2024, we moved the sourcing of our Cacao Powder and Cacao Nibs to the Dominican Republic. Our partners there were also early adopters of regenerative agriculture and their premium cacao beans are both Regenerative Organic Certified® and Fairtrade certified.
For sourcing information on the rest of our cacao products, please visit our Help Center article here.
Why did the price of your cacao go up?
The price of cacao on the commodities market has been steadily increasing over the past few years, recently hitting an all-time high with prices quadrupling in 2024 alone. The primary cause is a global cacao shortage resulting from a combination of drought and flooding that has affected West Africa, a region accounting for around 80% of the world's cacao output. With most farmers in the area operating independently on smallholder farms with limited resources, needed upgrades—including cacao seedlings to replace the trees damaged and lost—have been hard to come by. Combined with other factors, like an increased demand for cacao, supply chain disruptions, investor speculation and even cacao smuggling, the result has been a significant rise in the price of cacao that is finally reaching the marketplace.
After absorbing the increased cost of cacao for a few years, we have made the decision to raise the prices on our Cacao Powder and Cacao Nibs. This will not only make it possible for us to continue to supply premium quality cacao, but also to ensure that the people and places growing it are benefiting from its production with fair wages and organic, regenerative agriculture practices.
Do you have a superfood question for Kali? Send it to her at [email protected]!
See what other burning superfood questions customers are asking in our candid "Your Questions Answered" Blog Series here.
