Certasure™ Screening: Heavy Metals

Certasure™ Screening: Heavy Metals

Botanical colorants have an inherent risk due to the nature of crops. Because plants pull nutrients from the air, water, and soil they grow in, contaminants such as heavy metals can be absorbed throughout the growing process. While FD&C Colors are rigorously tested by the FDA, the same type of regulatory oversight simply does not exist for colors from botanical sources, and inherently, natural colors pose higher risks. For example, the FDA has very clear specifications for the levels of heavy metals like lead, arsenic and cadmium, etc. permitted in synthetic colors, and every batch of synthetic color must meet these heavy metal specifications in order to become a Certified Color (FD&C). However, that same type of certification process and screening for heavy metals does not exist for colors from botanical sources.

Sensient’s response to the lack of standards is Certasure™ –an integrated safety program for colors from plant sources that combines a comprehensive vendor certification, best manufacturing practices, full raw material traceability and the most stringent testing protocols. There are five major screening protocols which create the foundation of Sensient’s commitment to safety across the following risk metrics:

The Reason for Heavy Metals Screening

Botanical crops grown for color and natural ingredients can absorb heavy metals through the air, water, and/or soil. Several years ago, six suppliers had to recall turmeric for high lead content, and recently, Sensient failed a shipment of xanthan gum, a raw material used in natural color solutions, after finding high levels of lead present. Recalls, like the turmeric example, indicate companies are not doing the appropriate testing for heavy metal compliance according to regulatory guidance.

While navigating regulatory waters can be complex, Sensient is here to help guide you through those complexities. Additionally, there are regional regulatory bodies around the world that have issued systematic guidance levels for heavy metal permittance as a testing protocol roadmap, for the following metals Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead and Mercury.

While these regulatory bodies all issue guidance, it’s up to ingredient suppliers to test for the appropriate levels of heavy metals in raw materials. We encourage all nutraceutical manufacturers and developers to confirm these types of testing protocols are being conducted on their botanical ingredients like natural colors.

This blog is part of an ongoing series sharing details about each of our robust screening processes.

How we do it: Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) Atomic Emission Spectroscopy

Sensient’s chemists test three separate samples of each botanical raw material using an ICP, a specialized analytical instrument that measures electromagnetic radiation at wavelengths characteristic of particular elements—in this case, heavy metals.

The Certasure™ Promise Protects Manufacturers AND Consumers

Safety is of the utmost importance to us, and we know it’s important to our customers as well. We monitor all incoming raw materials for the presence of heavy metals.

When a material fails our screening process, botanical lots often go back out on the market, so we hope other natural color suppliers have implemented the same types of preventive measures to provide peace of mind for manufacturers and consumers alike.

When you receive natural colors from Sensient, the Certasure™ shield is placed on every shipment as a reminder of our guarantee of safe, quality, and authentic botanical colors.

This blog is part of an ongoing series sharing details about each of our robust screening processes.