by Keith M. Krise, Ph.D. and Betty Jo Chitester, Ph.D.
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Adding spices to our food can make it taste good and look colorful. But sometimes, there might be more than just flavor and color in our spices. Some spices actually contain small amounts of harmful metals, like lead or arsenic, that are bad for our health. When we eat food with too much of these metals, they can make us feel sick, hurt our brains, or make us tired. Kids, especially, need to be careful, because their bodies are still growing and are more sensitive to these metals.
These metals can sneak into spices through the soil where the plants grow. If the soil has too much metal from pollution, such as leaded gasoline, batteries, or industrial waste, the plant can soak it up, and then the metal ends up in the spice. Lucky for us, chemistry can help us figure out if our spices are safe to eat!
Chemists use special tools to find small amounts of metal in food, even when the metal is too small for us to see with our bare eyes. They use instruments like atomic absorption spectrometers to test the spice for the smallest particles of metals. To do so, scientists shine a special light through a sample (such as a spice powder), and then measure how much of the light is absorbed by the sample. Each metal absorbs light in its own special way, like a fingerprint, so scientists can tell exactly which metals are in the sample, and how much of the metals there are.
What can we do to enjoy our spices safely? Your grown-ups should buy spices from companies or stores that check their products carefully for harmful metals. We can also help by being responsible global citizens. For example, we can throw away old electronics the right way, so they don’t end up in the countries where spices grow, where they could pollute the soil and put metals in the spices.
Even though the presence of certain harmful metals in our food may scare you, science and smart shopping can help us enjoy our favorite spices safely. The next time you sprinkle some seasoning on your food, know that scientists are working hard to keep your food healthy and safe!
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