Cadmium in food: understanding exposure

Cadmium passes from soil into food and can accumulate in the body. Here is what French data show, why body burden is not a diagnosis, and which measures can genuinely reduce exposure.

Cadmium cannot be detected by the taste or appearance of a food. For most people, exposure builds up instead through small, repeated amounts in everyday products and the soil in which they were grown. Understanding this distinction helps avoid two mistakes: becoming alarmed about a single food, or believing that individual choices alone can solve a problem that originates further upstream.

Present in soil, then in the food chain

Cadmium is a metallic element that occurs naturally in certain rocks and in soil. Human activities can increase the amount present: industries emit it, while fertilising materials add it to agricultural land. Mineral phosphate fertilisers are an important source. They are made from phosphate rocks, from which cadmium cannot be entirely removed during manufacture.

Once present in the soil, the metal can be absorbed by plant roots and pass into food. Dietary exposure therefore depends both on the cadmium content of a product and on how often it is consumed. This is why a food that is highly contaminated but rarely eaten is not necessarily the main source of exposure for a population.

For the French population, Anses identifies foods made from wheat and cereals, such as bread, pasta, biscuits and breakfast cereals, as common contributors, along with rice, potatoes and certain vegetables. Offal, molluscs, crustaceans and seaweed can contain more cadmium; their contribution nevertheless depends on consumption habits. Chocolate, often mentioned in discussions of the subject, accounts for less than 3% of average dietary exposure in France, according to the agency.

These reference points describe French data. They do not make it possible to quantify exposure in Luxembourg directly, where dietary habits and sources of supply may differ.

Body burden, health threshold and disease: three distinct concepts

Cadmium can accumulate in the body over time. A measurement in urine provides information about body burden, that is, the presence of the substance in the body. Exceeding a health-based reference value indicates an exposure level that needs to be taken into account; in itself, it does not mean that a disease has been diagnosed.

In France, the Esteban biomonitoring study, conducted between 2014 and 2016, found that 47.6% of people aged 18 to 60 exceeded the critical concentration threshold used for urinary cadmium. Anses’s assessment published in 2026 indicates that exceedances persist in the population. These results concern measurements of exposure and body burden, not an equivalent proportion of people who are ill.

Prolonged exposure can affect health. Anses identifies kidney damage and weakened bones in particular. Cadmium is also classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic to reproduction; its carcinogenic nature has been established for the lung in the context of occupational exposure. The level of risk depends on the context and duration of exposure. It cannot be inferred from eating a food once.

Why reducing contamination at source takes time

Cadmium does not come from a single product or a single activity. In France, fertilising materials account for more than 80% of inputs to agricultural soils, according to Anses; mineral phosphate fertilisers are the main source, followed by livestock effluents. Atmospheric deposition also contributes to these inputs. Reducing contamination therefore requires action on several flows, particularly on the amount of cadmium added to the land.

Anses recommends a maximum content of 20 milligrams of cadmium per kilogram of P₂O₅ in mineral phosphate fertilisers. P₂O₅ is the reference unit used to express the phosphorus content of fertilisers. This value is part of a strategy to reduce inputs to soil and, in the longer term, dietary exposure.

The results cannot, however, be immediate. Cadmium persists in soil: changing inputs today will not suddenly remove the cadmium that has accumulated there over the years. Assurance Maladie also mentions agricultural research avenues, such as selecting varieties that absorb less of the metal or using plants not intended for food to help decontaminate certain soils.

Useful steps, without a promise of complete protection

At an individual level, Anses recommends diversifying your diet and sources of supply. In particular, it advises including more pulses in place of some wheat-based foods, and limiting certain sweet or savoury cereal-based products. Variety is intended to avoid repeated exposure through the same foods; it does not guarantee the absence of cadmium.

Offal, shellfish, crustaceans and seaweed are other foods to consider, especially when consumed frequently. Reducing them does not mean eliminating whole food groups: the aim is to maintain a balanced diet, taking frequency and habits into account rather than singling out one product.

Organic food is no guarantee against cadmium. Some fertilisers authorised in organic farming can also add it to soil, and organic foods can contain it. Similarly, the results of a study on average contamination levels do not allow us to conclude that a particular product is free of risk.

Tobacco is an additional source of exposure, on top of food. For people concerned about significant exposure, particularly because of where they live, Assurance Maladie recommends speaking to a doctor. Specific recommendations for people living at sites where soils are rich in cadmium come from the Haute Autorité de santé. In the longer term, sustained exposure reduction depends above all on measures that limit contamination of soil and food.