Cadmium found in most tested Swiss food products, despite legal limits being met

Cadmium appeared in 67 of 90 foods tested, placing a trace of the toxic heavy metal in many products found in Swiss kitchens. The French-speaking Swiss Consumer Federation commissioned laboratory testing of breads, pastries, potatoes, pasta, chocolate, cereals and oat flakes that were considered likely to contain cadmium.

Every product remained within the applicable legal safety limit. The result therefore does not point to an immediate food safety breach or a product recall. It does show how frequently consumers may encounter small quantities through ordinary meals.

Cadmium occurs naturally in certain rocks and can become more concentrated in agricultural soils through phosphate fertilisers. Plants absorb it from the ground, allowing the metal to enter the food chain. The concern is cumulative exposure. Cadmium can remain in the body for decades, where it may harm the kidneys and weaken bones.

The findings were published on August 27, 2026, as European debate over dietary cadmium continued to draw attention. For Swiss consumers, the issue is less about one offending product than about repeated exposure across a normal diet. The test results provide a snapshot of the market, not a personal estimate of risk.

Chocolate recorded the highest concentration in the study, at 0.36 milligrams per kilogram. That was roughly ten times the amount found in bread, pasta or potatoes in the products examined. The figure reflects how strongly cacao can take up cadmium from soil, as well as differences between growing regions.

Delphine Gilliard, a food testing scientist at the consumer federation, said cacao absorbs the metal more readily than oats or wheat. Chocolate also has a higher legal limit for cadmium, a regulatory distinction linked to the plant’s natural uptake.

The origin of the beans matters. Gilliard told RTS that American soils generally contain more cadmium than African soils. Chocolate packaging, however, does not always identify where the cacao was grown, limiting consumers’ ability to compare products on that basis.

The study did not find significant differences among the 67 positive products based on whether they were organic or conventional, Swiss or foreign, or cheaper or more expensive. The results do not establish that one brand or origin is unsafe. They point to the importance of clearer sourcing information and continued monitoring, particularly for products such as chocolate that can carry higher concentrations.

Potatoes contained 0.042 mg/kg of cadmium, compared with 0.015 mg/kg in toast. The difference reflects how crops take up substances from the soil. Potatoes grow directly underground, while wheat absorbs cadmium through its roots and transfers only a small portion into its grains.

Gilliard said the potato result was consistent with the biology of the two plants. It does not mean that potatoes sold in Switzerland breached safety rules. The tested products remained within legal limits, and the study did not identify a category that consumers should remove from their diets.

Organic certification also offered no clear separation in the laboratory results. The organic products contained as much cadmium as conventional products overall. Phosphate fertilisers are often not used in organic farming, although some are permitted. Similar concentrations in both systems raise questions about natural soil levels and cadmium already present in farmland.

The study also found variation within categories. Two packages of Swiss organic oats recorded the lowest cadmium levels among the oat products tested. That result illustrates why farming method alone cannot explain every measurement. Soil composition, crop type, growing region and supply chain conditions all influence the final concentration.

The tested foods met Swiss safety standards, while long term exposure remains the unresolved concern. Legal limits assess concentrations in individual products. They do not, by themselves, describe how much cadmium a person consumes when chocolate, cereals, potatoes and other foods appear repeatedly in a weekly diet.

The consumer federation’s findings do not provide enough information to calculate an individual’s total intake. The sample covered 90 products, and the results cannot represent every brand, harvest or imported batch available in Switzerland. They do provide grounds for further research into cumulative exposure, soil contamination and the information given to shoppers.

Swiss consumers can already use the results to put labels in perspective. Organic status and price did not reliably predict lower cadmium levels, while the source of cacao may affect chocolate concentrations but is not consistently stated on packaging. The lowest readings among the oat products came from two Swiss organic packages, yet that observation does not establish a general rule.

Swiss authorities have maintained that consumers are protected by existing limits. The new testing adds pressure for transparent monitoring across imported ingredients, clearer origin information for cacao and more evidence on how low doses accumulate in the body over time.