FDA cinnamon lead alert grows to 21 products with Wise Wife recall

The FDA has added a 21st product to its list of ground cinnamon with elevated lead levels, and this one reached grocery shelves in 14 states. SLR Food Distribution Inc. of Hicksville, NY, is recalling its Wise Wife brand ground cinnamon after Connecticut's Agricultural Experiment Station found 2.118 parts per million of lead in a sample.

The recalled jar carries UPC 0688474302754 and a best-before date of April 25, 2027. It's a 110 g (3.88 oz) clear plastic container with a black screw-top cap, and it was distributed to retail and grocery stores in Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin between Sept. 8, 2025, and June 28, 2026.

This is the FDA's third public health alert for ground cinnamon this year. "The FDA is taking the additional step in issuing a third public health alert this year for ground cinnamon to ensure the safety of ground cinnamon used in foods that are frequently consumed by babies and young children," the agency said in the alert.

How do these levels compare to WanaBana?

Lead concentrations across the 21 listed products run from 2.03 to 7.68 ppm. That's genuinely low compared with the WanaBana cinnamon apple puree and applesauce recall of fall 2023, where the cinnamon itself carried 2,270 to 5,110 ppm — hundreds of times higher. Hundreds of babies and young children showed unsafe blood lead levels after eating those products.

Still, the FDA's assessment is that consuming the newly listed products could contribute to elevated blood lead. Long-term exposure, over months to years, can worsen health outcomes, especially for people already carrying lead from other sources. Risk varies with the consumer's age, the amount eaten, and how often — and the very young are most vulnerable, since high lead exposure in utero, infancy and early childhood can cause learning disabilities, behavior difficulties and lowered IQ.

What's driving the enforcement?

The mechanism here is state-level sampling funded by the FDA. After the WanaBana recall, the agency asked states to prioritize testing of ground cinnamon and other spices. States then fed results to the FDA through the Laboratory Flexible Funding Model (LFFM), a cooperative agreement that helps investigate, monitor and remove adulterated foods from commerce.

Arkansas, California, Maryland, Missouri, Connecticut and Virginia collected ground cinnamon samples through the LFFM. New York State's Department of Agriculture and Markets supplied additional samples outside the program.

Which products are on the list?

The 21 entries span discount, ethnic and mainstream retail channels. A sampling of the biggest names:

• Super Brand (IHA Beverage, Commerce, CA) — 7.68 and 6.60 ppm, sold at an Asian supermarket in Little Rock, AR
• BaiLiFeng (Good Way Trading Group) — 10.7 ppm, the highest figure in the table
• El Chilar (Apopka, FL) — 3.75 and 7.01 ppm, sold at El Torito Market
• Marcum (Moran Foods, Saint Ann, MO) — 2.22 and 2.14 ppm, sold at Save-A-Lot
• Supreme Tradition (Greenbrier International, Chesapeake, VA) — 2.37 ppm, sold at Dollar Tree
• Wise Wife (SLR Food Distribution) — 2.118 ppm in the newest entry, plus an earlier 2.49 ppm entry distributed in seven states
• SWAD (Raja Foods, Skokie, IL) — 2.89 ppm, sold at Patel Brothers
• HAETAE (HT) (Haitai, Inc. USA) — 4.60 ppm, various supermarkets nationwide

Other listed brands include Lior Gourmet Spices and Galil (2.18 ppm), Lucky Foods (3.00 and 4.17 ppm), Venzu Traders (3.00 ppm), DEVI (2.92 ppm), Roshni (2.268 ppm), Durra (2.44 ppm), Jiva Organics (2.29 ppm), Asli (2.32 ppm), Compania Indillor Orientale (2.23 ppm), ALB Flavor (3.93 ppm), Shahzada (2.03 ppm), Spice Class (2.04 ppm) and La Frontera (2.66 ppm).

The FDA says it's still reviewing sample results from state partners who continue sampling ground cinnamon at retail, and it will update the alert as necessary if more products show unsafe lead levels.