Lead in Candy

The California Department of Public Health, Food and Drug Branch (FDB) has been charged with the implementation of Assembly Bill 121, to prevent the sale of adulterated candy to infants, young children, and pregnant women.  FDB's Lead in Candy Program is responsible for the collection and testing of candy samples.  Enforcement action is taken when adulterated candies are identified and appropriate notifications are made to local environmental health directors and the public. 

The Department has issued numerous health alerts for adulterated candies. For additional information about lead poisoning, consumers are advised to contact their local childhood lead poisoning prevention program or public health department.

Below you will find laboratory test data, applicable regulations, links to other resources, as well as photographs of candies found to contain lead in excess 0.10 parts per million.  Additional food safety information may be obtained on FDB's Food Safety Program page. Note: Footnote 3 in each of the Laboratory Data files below should read as follows, “ND denotes that the test result was below the quantitation limit of 0.05 ppm for the method used.” Footnote 3 has been updated on the link identified as “Test Results 2017-2018”. The remaining links, containing data from earlier years, have not been changed.