Heavy metals—What are they and why should you be concerned about
them? The elements known as heavy metals include arsenic, cadmium, lead and
mercury. These elements can be present in the soil that your materials are
grown in or found in facilities where your products are produced. These
contaminates can pose a health risk to your consumers and could even cause
poisoning if they are consumed in high enough quantities. Due to their high
health risk, the FDA requires testing for these analytes to be compliant with
their GMP regulations. You may be asking yourself some questions regarding this
testing and SORA Labs is here to answer them! Some of the most commonly asked
questions and their responses are below:
Q: What
stage of manufacturing can you test for heavy metals?
o
Raw Material
§
When you test your raw materials, you are more
likely to catch a “bad” ingredient before you add it to your blend and ruin
your entire batch.
o
Finished Products:
§
Finished product testing confirms that the product
meets required standards once all ingredients are blended and no heavy metal
contamination occurred during the manufacturing process.
Q: Why
Choose the ICP-MS method?
§
There are other methods that can be utilized for
heavy metals analysis, however, ICP-MS allows the laboratory to achieve lower
detection limits when compared to ICP-OES. This lowered detection limit allows
for more accurate and precise data on your product.
§
Prop 65 requires certain limits of heavy metals
to be met. Some prop 65 results can be obtained by ICP-OES; however, the
serving size becomes a large factor. By using ICP-MS the factor of serving
sizes becomes less of a deterrent. We are now able to achieve prop 65 levels on
a larger variety of serving sizes.
If you have any remaining questions, please do not hesitate
to contact us. SORA Labs would love to assist you with making sure your
consumers are getting a top quality product! We offer ICP-MS heavy metal and
mineral testing along with many other assays, ID and contaminate testing needed
in the dietary supplement industry. Visit our website today!
