Heavy-Metal Testing Results

Third-party tested · Lot 12983284

Heavy-Metal Testing Results

Coffee plants take up what is in the soil they grow in. We had an accredited laboratory measure the four heavy metals that matter. All four came back below the limit of quantification.

The report

Testing was performed by FoodChain ID Testing of Chantilly, Virginia, accredited by PJLA under the ilac‑MRA mutual recognition arrangement, using FDA elemental analysis method EAM Version 4.7.

Laboratory: FoodChain ID Testing
Report number: FCID 22210A‑1
Sample: Roasted coffee
Lot: #12983284 · 06/24/2025
Date sampled: June 27, 2025
Date issued: July 14, 2025
Method: FDA Method EAM Version 4.7
Signed by: Thomas Scott, Laboratory Director
Matrix: Multi‑Ingredient (Dry)

Download the full report (PDF) — the complete document as issued, heavy metals and mycotoxins together.

Results

Element	Result	Limit of detection	Limit of quantification	Method
[As] Arsenic	<0.010 ppm	0.003 ppm	0.010 ppm	FDA EAM 4.7
[Cd] Cadmium	<0.010 ppm	0.003 ppm	0.010 ppm	FDA EAM 4.7
[Hg] Mercury	<0.010 ppm	0.003 ppm	0.010 ppm	FDA EAM 4.7
[Pb] Lead	<0.010 ppm	0.003 ppm	0.010 ppm	FDA EAM 4.7

Each result sits under the limit of quantification — the lowest amount this method could put a number to. The limit of detection, lower still at 0.003 ppm, is the threshold below which it cannot tell a trace apart from nothing at all. Neither figure means zero, and we do not describe them that way.

How to read a number like this

One part per million is one milligram in a kilogram. The results above sit below one hundredth of that in a kilogram of roasted coffee — and a kilogram of roasted coffee is roughly sixty mugs.

For scale: California’s Proposition 65, about the strictest published benchmark in the United States, sets a daily lead exposure level of 0.5 micrograms. Brewing extracts only a fraction of what is in the grounds, so a result under the quantification limit in the dry coffee leaves a wide margin in the cup.

We are not going to pretend heavy metals in coffee are a crisis. They are simply a fair question to ask of anything grown in soil, and the answer should be a measurement.

Scope: read this part

These results describe one lot, sampled once — lot #12983284, sampled June 27, 2025. They are not a claim that every bag we have ever shipped was tested, and they are not a continuous monitoring program. When we run new panels, we will publish those too, with their own lot numbers and dates.

The report is issued to Roastify, LLC of Bend, Oregon. That is our roasting partner — the facility that roasts and packs Bean Reaper coffee. The sample was drawn from their roasted production, which is where our coffee comes from, so the name on the report is theirs rather than ours.

The rest of the panel

Mycotoxin Testing ResultsNineteen analytes, all Not Detected Mold & Yeast Testing ResultsCulture count, same lot Laboratory Transparency ProtocolThe rules we publish these under

Report FCID 22210A‑1, FoodChain ID Testing, Chantilly VA. Method: FDA Method EAM Version 4.7. Accreditation: PJLA, ilac‑MRA. Download the full report (PDF).