Since 2024, 21 cinnamon brands have been recalled or subject to alerts for potentially dangerous amounts of lead. Those products have been distributed in at least 14 states, according to the FDA.

Lead in cinnamon isn’t new. Two years ago, lead-tainted applesauce pouches made hundreds of children in the U.S. sick. That cinnamon had been laced with lead chromate, a toxic powder that has a history of being added to certain spices to enhance color and weight.

Efforts to tackle lead in cinnamon and food are playing out differently across the country. In June, New York state passed the nation’s strictest lead-in-spices law, allowing officials to pull brands tainted above a certain threshold off store shelves starting in 2028.