Published standards
for heavy metals.
Product-specific limits for eight priority metals. Independent laboratory testing and ongoing lot surveillance support every certification.
What this
certification is
Heavy Metal Tested & Certified publishes numeric heavy-metal limits and certifies products against them. Limits are set per product subcategory, stated in each product’s native basis, and default to the strictest applicable government maximum: tightened by a pooled distribution of peer-reviewed and government occurrence data for the four Tier-1 toxics and the analytes no government regulates. The program is operated and governed by the Institute of Contaminant Standards (ICS). The peer-reviewed occurrence and toxicology evidence behind those limits is compiled openly at the Heavy Metal Index, a public reference to the published literature on heavy metals in food that ICS also maintains, so a reader can trace any limit back to its sources.
Certification is specific and evidence-based. To earn the mark, a product is independently tested by a laboratory accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 and shown to sit at or below every published value for its subcategory, on the ten-analyte panel and in its native basis, under ongoing lot surveillance. The mark is granted per product, not brand-wide, so it stands for the exact item that carries it.
Each limit is set at least as strict as the strictest maximum any credible government enforces, then tightened over time as methods and supply chains improve, so the standard ratchets rather than locking in a floor. That gives a retailer building an approved-product list, a brand sourcing ingredients, and a shopper reading a label the same footing: a published limit they can trace to its source, match against an accredited laboratory result, and defend under scrutiny.
The analyte panel
EFSA (2010) could not identify a threshold for the critical neurodevelopmental effects in children; JECFA withdrew its provisional tolerable weekly intake in 2011 as no longer health-protective for an endpoint without one.
Biological half-life of 10 to 30 years with the renal cortex as target organ. IARC classifies cadmium and its compounds as Group 1, carcinogenic to humans.
IARC Group 1 on lung, skin and bladder cancer evidence. EFSA’s 2024 reassessment derived a cancer reference point near 0.06 µg/kg bw/day and found margins of exposure at current dietary intakes low.
Crosses the blood–brain barrier and accumulates in developing neural tissue; prenatal and early postnatal windows are the most critical exposure periods.
EFSA has established a chronic tolerable daily intake of 13 µg/kg bw/day. Largely controllable through sourcing and process control.
Acute gastrointestinal endpoint only, with a very large margin to chronic-effect levels. Carried mainly as a sentinel for packaging integrity.
JECFA has established a provisional tolerable weekly intake of 2 mg/kg bw/week. Controllable through water treatment and process controls.
Trivalent chromium is an essential nutrient and is assumed in food; hexavalent chromium is an IARC Group 1 carcinogen by ingestion. Speciated where a credible hexavalent pathway exists.
Common
questions
What products can be certified today?
Today 348 subcategory standards are in force as published pages, and 320 of them already carry at least one firm analyte limit. A firm limit is published for each analyte as it clears the five shipping gates, and the standard widens as the evidence base and governance review clear more cells. A product is eligible the moment a standard exists for its subcategory: a brand does not wait for the rest of its category.
See the register →How much does certification cost, and how long does it take?
Fees are annual and scale with the applicant’s gross annual revenue, so a small brand is not priced at an enterprise rate. Two-year terms take 10% off and three-year terms 20%. Standard processing runs four to eight weeks; rush handling is $5,000 for ten business days and $10,000 for three.
What does the HMTc mark mean on a package?
That the product was tested at an accredited laboratory and found at or below every value in the published standard for its subcategory, on a ten-analyte panel, in the basis the product is sold in. The mark must appear with a scope line naming the standard and its edition, so the claim can be checked rather than trusted.
Does certification mean a product is safe?
No, and the program does not claim it. Certification is a statement about a measurement against a published threshold, not a health verdict on an individual product or diet. A program implying otherwise would be making a claim its evidence cannot support.
Who sets the limits, and are they stricter than government limits?
Each limit defaults to the strictest applicable government maximum, in the product’s native basis. For the four Tier-1 toxics and for the cells no government regulates, the program pools peer-reviewed and government occurrence data and takes the stricter of that pooled figure and the government maximum: sometimes stricter than a government limit, never looser.
How limits are derived →What is the difference between HMTc and the Heavy Metal Index?
The Index is a public reference for the published literature on heavy metals in food; HMTc is a certification program that reads from it, not the other way around.