Test of 36 pasta packages found cadmium in 34 of them. Not one above the limit for durum wheat. The state is shutting down the magazine that measured it.

The French consumer magazine 60 Millions de consommateurs sent 36 packages of pasta to a laboratory and found cadmium in 34 of them. However, none of the measured values exceeded the limit for durum wheat, which the magazine used to compare the results. According to the test's authors, this is precisely the core of the problem, not that any brand violated the rules. RMC Conso ↗

What the test found

The editorial office compared 18 packages of penne and 18 packages of spaghetti across price levels, from Italian and French brands through private store brands to gluten-free and protein product lines. Only two items were completely free of cadmium, both gluten-free penne from the private brands of French stores Leclerc and U. The highest values were found in the whole-grain line of the Barilla brand, where penne contained 0.066 milligrams per kilogram and spaghetti 0.071. Right behind them came penne of the Combino brand, the private pasta line of the Lidl chain. RMC Conso ↗

The brand itself does not render a verdict. In the same test, Barilla's gluten-free spaghetti were among those with the lowest cadmium content, and Delverde brand whole-grain penne contained 0.009 milligrams, thus almost eight times less than the worst item. The editorial office attributes the differences to the origin of the wheat, because cadmium is a natural component of soil and its amount in grain depends on which field it was grown in. Multinational companies, however, purchase grain from different countries depending on the season, market, and year. RMC Conso ↗

A clarification is needed here. The European Union does not set a limit for cadmium in finished dry pasta, but for the grain from which they are made. For durum wheat it is 0.18 milligrams per kilogram and for other cereals 0.10. The highest value from the test thus ended up at just under 40 percent of the limit applicable to the raw material. EUR-Lex ↗

Why it is an issue despite the limits

The editorial's argument does not rest on a single package, but on a sum. Editor-in-chief Sylvie Metzelardová reminds us in the editorial that cadmium accumulates in the body gradually, settles primarily in the kidneys, and is very difficult to excrete. The magazine therefore calculates a model example in which a child weighing 40 kilograms eats five portions of 60 grams of dry pasta per week and ingests approximately 21 micrograms of cadmium. This is more than one-fifth of the tolerable weekly dose set by the European Food Safety Authority, and that is just from pasta. Moreover, this calculation corresponds to the highest measured value from the test, so it is about the upper limit, not the average. RMC Conso ↗

The rest of the dose, however, comes from common things that no one considers risky. Cadmium is also found in bread, potatoes, or chocolate, so according to the magazine, one can reach the limit with a completely normal diet. This also defines the target audience of the entire issue. The editorial does not address the consumer, who should choose a different package, but the state. "When will we start treating public health problems for what they are and stop making them invisible?" asks Metzelardová. RMC Conso ↗

The dispute in France is not about pasta, but about fertilizers

The test does not emerge in a vacuum. On April 14, MP and agronomist Benoît Biteau, together with other MPs, submitted a bill aimed at reducing health risks from cadmium in food. Its core is not stricter limits on finished products, but a downward trajectory for cadmium content in phosphate fertilizers, which deposit it into agricultural soil over the long term. The National Assembly approved the text on June 3 by a vote of 144 to 22, against the government's position. Le Monde ↗

The numbers behind this dispute are surprising. France currently allows up to 90 milligrams of cadmium per kilogram of phosphorus pentoxide in phosphate fertilizers under its own national regime, while the harmonized European limit for CE-marked fertilizers is 60. The bill proposes to tighten the limit to 40 milligrams from January 2027 and to 20 from January 2030, which is the value recommended by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Safety (Anses). La France Agricole ↗

Nothing has moved in the file since its approval. The Senate took over the bill on June 4 as document number 704, and as of August 27, no further steps have been added to the public legislative file—meaning no committee discussion or plenary session date. The upper chamber has a right-wing majority. Sénat ↗

Meanwhile, cadmium has appeared in consumer cases in France. In July, the Carrefour chain recalled melons from sale across the country due to excessive levels of this metal. Le Figaro ↗

The magazine that published the test is meanwhile being shut down by the state

This is part of the story that the test itself does not mention. 60 Millions de consommateurs is neither a private magazine nor an activist organization, but a publication of the Institut national de la consommation—that is, the French National Institute for Consumer Affairs, which was founded in 1966. And France is shutting it down. The dissolution and liquidation of the institute were introduced by Article 187 of the 2026 budget law, and since March 31 a liquidator has been managing the institute. Public Sénat ↗

The two things are not directly connected. Liquidation is a budgetary decision made in February, long before this test, and nothing suggests it was triggered by any of the magazine's reports. The coincidence is hard to overlook. The liquidator has a nine-month mandate and his task is to keep the magazine in publication until a private buyer is found. The September issue, which criticizes the state for "making invisible" public health problems, thus comes from an editorial office that itself is waiting to see if someone will take it over. franceinfo ↗

In our reporting, cadmium is so far more of a warehouse than a meal

Cadmium exists in Slovak and Czech media, but mostly in a different form. It is either an industrial burden or an imported item. In the village of Vikantice in the Šumperk district, more than a thousand tons of cadmium sludge lie in a corrugated metal hall for more than forty years, at the foot of the Jeseníky Protected Landscape Area. Mayor Libor Sedlařík says that in winter he heard the structure cracking and warns that if the contents get into water, "we will poison it all the way to the Black Sea." iROZHLAS ↗

The transport was supposed to take place last year. The Ústí Region, to which the sludge was supposed to go, has meanwhile decided that the plan must undergo a full environmental impact assessment, and the mayor estimates it could take another two years. In mid-August, municipalities in the Litoměřice area objected to the transport, and at the end of August it became clear that the containers contain construction debris in addition to sludge, which could further complicate the entire liquidation. iDNES.cz ↗

In Slovakia, cadmium has made news this year mainly through product recalls. The Public Health Office warned in May about a mug from China with impermissible amounts of cadmium and lead. SITA ↗

The difference is clearly visible in pasta. In the Czech Republic too, Italian pasta sold by the Albert chain was recalled in August, but the reason was that it contained fewer eggs than the label promised. So it was the truthfulness of the packaging that was tested, not heavy metal in the grain. Novinky.cz ↗

Limits of this view

60 Millions de consommateurs is a consumer magazine with a stated mission to pressure authorities, not a neutral scientific institute, and its September issue is also a campaign for stricter regulation. The model calculation with a child is a scenario, not a measurement of actual exposure, and since no sample exceeded the limit, the test does not imply that any particular package was dangerous. Cadmium toxicity with long-term exposure is not disputed. The open question rather is what proportion dietary cadmium contributes to the increase in specific diagnoses. When claims appeared in June that it was behind the increase in pancreatic cancer, French media investigated and the conclusion was cautious. Le Figaro ↗

The other side of the dispute is heard mainly from agriculture. Five associations of wheat, corn, sugar beet, oilseed and potato growers rejected the bill's first-reading approval, arguing that France is once again imposing restrictions that neighbors have not accepted, and that this is not a victory for science or public health. On potatoes, they argue with their own data, according to which the measured content is almost four times below the EU limit. La France Agricole ↗

After all, the test was conducted on the French market, so specific batches on Slovak and Czech shelves were not measured, even though Barilla and Combino are commonly sold here. And while the relationship between phosphate fertilizers and cadmium in soil is professionally documented, the pace of reduction prescribed by law is a matter of dispute, which is also one of the reasons why the text has stalled in the Senate. Le Monde ↗

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