WHAT IS THE CALIFORNIA PROP 65 WARNING?
California Prop 65 is California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986. The Act sets extremely strict standards to provide maximum transparency to consumers about the risk of exposure to over 800 chemicals and metals. These extreme standards have resulted in Prop 65 warnings appearing on an increasing number of natural foods whose levels of naturally occurring metals do not meet the Prop 65 standards.
LABELING REQUIREMENTS FOR PROP 65
Cancer Warning
“For chemicals that are listed as causing cancer, the “no significant risk level” is defined as the level of exposure that would result in not more than one excess case of cancer in 100,000 individuals exposed to the chemical over a 70-year lifetime.”
https://oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65/general-info/proposition-65-plain-language
What it means:
If daily consumption of a given product over the course of 70 years increases your risk of cancer by more than 0.001%, a warning is required.
Birth Defects Warning
For chemicals listed as causing birth defects or reproductive harm, the “no observable effect level” is determined by identifying the level of exposure that has been shown not to harm humans or laboratory animals. Proposition 65 then requires this “no observable effect level” to be divided by 1,000 to provide an ample margin of safety.”
https://oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65/general-info/proposition-65-plain-language
What it means:
Levels of metals or chemicals that are known to the State of California to cause birth defects would have to exceed the Prop 65 standards by more than 1,000x before there is an observable effect on the rate of birth defects.
Acrylamide
Popcorn, when popped, contains a substance called acrylamide, which is formed when any starchy food is baked or fried at high temperatures. French fries, potato chips, bread, cereal, coffee, and other starchy food baked or fried at high temperatures contain acrylamide.
Acrylamide is not added to our food but is created whenever popcorn is popped, or other foods are baked or fried at high temperatures.
Consuming our popped popcorn can expose you to the chemical Acrylamide, which is known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information, go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov/food.
The FDA has not advised people to stop eating popped popcorn or other foods that contain acrylamide. For more information, see www.fda.gov.