Cadmium Exposure Lawsuits: Do Your Sunflower Seeds, Butters Contain a Toxic Heavy Metal?
Last Updated on September 6, 2024
At A Glance
- This Alert Affects:
- California residents who purchased any of the sunflower seeds or sunflower butters listed on this page.
- What’s Going On?
- Testing has shown that certain sunflower seeds and sunflower butters contain high levels of cadmium, leading attorneys to investigate whether a class action lawsuit can be filed on behalf of consumers who purchased the products.
- What Sunflower Products Are Under Investigation?
- Whole Foods’ 365 Organic Sunflower Kernels (Roasted & Unsalted); Trader Joe’s Raw Sunflower Seeds; Trader Joe’s Sunflower Seed Spread; SunButter No Sugar Added Sunflower Butter; SunButter Organic Sunflower Butter; and Nuts.com’s Raw Sunflower Seeds (No Shell).
- How Could a Class Action Lawsuit Help?
- A cadmium exposure lawsuit could help shoppers get back some of the money they paid for the sunflower seeds and butters. It could also force the manufacturers to change production standards, issue a warning or recall the items altogether.
Recent testing of nine sunflower seed products found that more than half contained an excessive amount of known carcinogen and toxic heavy metal cadmium.
These products include the following:
- Whole Foods’ 365 Organic Sunflower Kernels (Roasted & Unsalted)
- Trader Joe’s Raw Sunflower Seeds
- Trader Joe’s Sunflower Seed Spread
- SunButter No Sugar Added Sunflower Butter
- SunButter Organic Sunflower Butter
- Nuts.com’s Raw Sunflower Seeds (No Shell)
Attorneys are now investigating whether a class action lawsuit can be filed on behalf of consumers who purchased these items without any warning that they could contain an undisclosed and harmful ingredient. A sunflower cadmium lawsuit could help shoppers get some money back and potentially force a recall or a label update.
If you live in California and purchased any of the sunflower seeds or sunflower butters listed above, attorneys want to hear from you. Fill out the form on this page to learn more about the cadmium lawsuit investigation and what you can do.
Report: Leading Sunflower Seeds, Butters Contain Cadmium
In mid-August 2024, ConsumerLab.com released the results of tests performed on several sunflower products popular among its readers. According to the report, the sunflower products listed above were found to contain “a concerning amount of cadmium.”
Specifically, the tests revealed that a 30-gram serving of each of these sunflower products contained well above 4.1 mcg of cadmium, a limit established by California’s Prop 65 law as the “maximum allowable daily level (MADL) for cadmium exposure by the oral route.”
In California, any product containing more than this amount of cadmium per daily serving is required to include a warning label regarding reproductive harm. According to ConsumerLab.com, “there is no established federal limit for cadmium in foods in the U.S.”
The amount of cadmium in the tested products varied widely, with the Whole Foods 365 Organic Sunflower Kernels (Roasted & Unsalted) showing 8.6 mcg per 30-gram serving, while SunButter Organic Sunflower Butter revealed the highest amount at 19.5 mcg. This indicates that even organic sunflower seeds can contain cadmium.
According to Healthline.com, sunflowers can absorb cadmium from the soil, which is why their seeds and butters may contain higher levels of cadmium than other foods.
The health effects of cadmium on humans include cancer of the lungs, prostate, kidneys and pancreas, as well as harm to the skeletal and respiratory systems. Indeed, the World Health Organization has classified cadmium as a known human carcinogen, noting that cadmium exposure sources mainly include consumption of contaminated food, inhalation of tobacco smoke, and inhalation by workers in certain industries.
How Could a Sunflower Cadmium Lawsuit Help?
A class action lawsuit could help shoppers get back some of the money they spent on the sunflower seeds and butters. Attorneys believe many wouldn’t have purchased the products – or at least wouldn’t have paid as much – had they known the food could expose them to excessive amounts of cadmium.
A successful cadmium exposure lawsuit could also force the manufacturers to change their production standards, issue a warning or recall the sunflower seeds and butters altogether.
Do you live in California? If you bought any of the sunflower butters or sunflower seeds listed above, get in touch by filling out the form on this page. You may be able to help get a class action lawsuit started.
It doesn’t cost anything to get in touch, and you’re not obligated to take legal action after speaking to someone.
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