Scope and method
Every limit on every subcategory is the strictest maximum level set by any credible government worldwide, converted to the product’s native basis, with a disclosed read-across from the nearest government value where no government regulates the exact product. Nothing is invented; every number traces to a named sovereign limit in the regulation references.
Method: government-limit default (Method v2.0). Dairy limits are taken at face value in each product's native basis; there is no reconstitution conversion (dairy has no legislated reconstitution ratio, unlike infant formula). Product forms — liquid milk, cheese, powder, condensed, butterfat — are kept distinct: non-concentrated liquid forms share the general fluid-milk sovereign pool, while concentrated forms carry their own higher form-specific government maximums. Every claim analyte is equal at the gate: a product is certified only at or below 100% of each published government floor or disclosed read-across. An exceedance on any metal enters Remediation unmarked; there is no transitional overage. Inorganic arsenic and hexavalent chromium are reflex speciation screens; methylmercury has no pathway in dairy; tin is material only for canned product.
Master limit matrix
All values ppb (µg/kg) in each row’s native basis. Click any subcategory for its full government-by-government derivation. n/m = not material in the matrix; controlled by screen or reflex speciation, not a number.
| Subcategory | Pb | Cd | tAs | iAs | Hg | MeHg | Ni | Sn | Al | Cr | Cr-VI | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liquid milk — cow | 20 | 50 | 50 | — | 10 | — | 100 | 250000 | 500 | 300 | — | as consumed |
| Liquid milk — goat, sheep, and other ruminant | 20 | 50 | 50 | — | 10 | — | 100 | 250000 | 500 | 300 | — | as consumed |
| Camel milk | 20 | 50 | 50 | — | 10 | — | 100 | 250000 | 500 | 300 | — | as consumed |
| Cheese | 20 | 500 | 500 | — | 50 | — | 100 | 250000 | 500 | 300 | — | as sold |
| Yogurt and cultured dairy | 20 | 50 | 50 | — | 10 | — | 100 | 250000 | 500 | 300 | — | as consumed |
| Cream | 20 | 50 | 50 | — | 10 | — | 100 | 250000 | 500 | 300 | — | as consumed |
| Milk powders — whole, skim, and specialty | 20 | 1000 | 500 | — | 50 | — | 250 | 250000 | 500 | 2000 | — | as sold |
| Condensed and evaporated milks | 200 | 100 | 100 | — | 100 | — | 100 | 200000 | 500 | 300 | — | as sold |
Risk Flag
These subcategories carry a natural or process background that runs above the limit — the limit being the strictest government maximum for the product, never a percentile of market data (Method v2.0). A product is not disqualified by this: only its own tested result decides certification, and a well-sourced lot can sit well below the market. What the pooled occurrence literature shows is where the work is — which ingredients demand exceptional sourcing.
Aluminium
Grains and cereals, aluminium-based leavening agents (baking powder made with sodium aluminium sulfate or phosphate), and some tablet and capsule excipients carry high aluminium. No government sets an aluminium limit for solid infant food, so the standard holds these products to the strictest sovereign infant aluminium ceiling — the AU-NZ infant-formula limit — as a protective read-across, rather than to the only limit that names solid foods (an adult additive-residue allowance many times looser). Much of the excess comes from aluminium-based leavening, which a brand can reformulate away with aluminium-free baking powder.
Multipliers are the ratio of the pooled occurrence median to the published limit; occurrence characterises the market only and carries no compliance weight. See the cross-category summary.
About this edition
Standards are living, versioned documents; each subcategory page carries its own version history and dated change log. This is the current web edition. A consolidated, version-pinned PDF of the full manual is in preparation and will be linked here on release; until then each subcategory page is individually citable.
The literature baseline underlying these certification limits is maintained independently at the Heavy Metal Index. This certification standard applies those findings; the two are kept editorially separate by design.