How limits are set
The standard for each analyte is the strictest maximum level set by any credible government regulator, among them the European Union, Codex Alimentarius, the US FDA, Australia/New Zealand, the Gulf states (GSO), and the national authorities of every jurisdiction that regulates the product, converted into Cooking oils, other (canola, sunflower, coconut, avocado, sesame)’s own as-sold basis. It is a lookup of sovereign law, carrying at most one disclosed basis conversion where the law is written in another basis, and an explicit read-across where no government regulates the exact product. A certified product sits at or below every applicable sovereign limit at once.
Where no government regulates the exact product for an analyte, the standard does not go blank or invent a number: the limit is read across from the nearest government value for an analogous product, so a certified product still sits at or below a real sovereign limit. The ratchet tightens these after publication as surveillance warrants.
Master Limit Table
All values in ppb (µg/kg), as-sold basis. Every analyte carries a firm ceiling. A brand meeting every value on a like-for-like basis qualifies for the mark.
| Analyte | Tier | HMTc limit | Binding basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead (Pb) | Tier 1 | 80 | strictest government ML (GSO) |
| Cadmium (Cd) | Tier 1 | 30 | strictest government ML (Israel) |
| Total arsenic (tAs) | Tier 2 | 100 | strictest government ML (Codex) |
| Mercury, total (tHg) | Tier 1 | 20 | strictest government ML (Israel) |
| Nickel (Ni) | Tier 2 | 100 | government read-across (EU) |
| Total chromium (Cr) | Tier 2 | 300 | government read-across (China) |
| Hexavalent chromium (Cr-VI) | Tier 2 | 10 | government read-across (US-CA) |
| Tin (Sn) | Tier 2 | 200000 | government read-across (EU) |
| Aluminium (Al) | Tier 2 | 1000 | government read-across (EU) |
Tier 1 (Pb, iAs, Hg, MeHg, Cd) are zero-tolerance toxics with no established safe threshold. Tier 2 (tAs, Ni, Cr, Cr-VI, Sn, Al) are held to the same government limit: tiering sets how the program reacts to an exceedance, not any permission to exceed it. A product is certified only when every analyte is at or below 100% of its published limit; above the limit, on any metal, it is not certified and carries no mark.
Derivation
The full derivation for Cooking oils, other (canola, sunflower, coconut, avocado, sesame). Each row lists every government maximum level in force worldwide, converted to the as-sold basis; the HMTc limit is the strictest of them, and the last column names which sovereign law binds. A blank cell means that government sets no limit for this analyte in this product.
| Analyte | EU | Codex | GSO | India | Mercosur | Fiji | Israel | Panama | Paraguay | Singapore | Thailand | Vietnam | Hong Kong | HMTc | Binds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lead (Pb) | 100 | — | 80 | 100 | 100 | 200 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 80 | 100 | 80 | 80 | GSO |
| Cadmium (Cd) | — | — | — | — | — | — | 30 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 30 | Israel |
| Total arsenic (tAs) | — | 100 | — | 100 | 100 | — | 1000 | — | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | — | 100 | Codex |
| Inorganic arsenic (iAs) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 100&sup5; | species ≤ tAs |
| Mercury, total (tHg) | — | — | — | — | — | — | 20 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 20 | Israel |
| Methylmercury (MeHg) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 20&sup5; | species ≤ tHg |
| Nickel (Ni) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 100² | read-across |
| Total chromium (Cr) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 300² | read-across |
| Hexavalent chromium (Cr-VI) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 10² | read-across |
| Tin (Sn) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 200000² | read-across |
| Aluminium (Al) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1000² | read-across |
All values µg/kg (ppb), as-sold basis. ² no government regulates this analyte for this exact product form: the value is a disclosed read-across from the nearest applicable government maximum, and the derivation names the instrument it comes from. It is never taken from occurrence data. After publication the standards ratchet may tighten it, using certified-lot results only. ³ not material in this matrix: measured but with no standalone number, controlled by packaging control or by the total-metal screen, not an invented value. &sup5; a toxic species governed by and bounded by its parent total (for example inorganic arsenic ≤ total arsenic): the species can never exceed the total, so the total ceiling is the species ceiling. The total metal is measured on every lot and the species is established at baseline; no separate species ceiling is published. On ongoing lots the species is speciated whenever the total exceeds its limit.
Occurrence and derivation rationale
For each analyte on the panel: what the peer-reviewed and survey literature measured in this category, cited one way to the Heavy Metal Index, and the Method v2.0 reasoning behind the certification limit, including, where no government sets a number, why the program sets one anyway. Occurrence figures are literature findings; the derivation is the certifier's.
13 studies in the certified-market pool measured lead in Other cooking oils across 306 certified-market samples. The pooled distribution centres on a median of 18 ppb and reaches 125 ppb at the 95th percentile. Zhu 2011, Tayeb 2025, Matei 2025, Ntigoroku 2025, Mehri 2024, Samuel 2020, Acar 2012, Ashraf 2012 and 5 more.
HMTc sets 80 ppb (regulatory-alignment): the strictest applicable government maximum level for this product form, adopted under Method v2.0 as the default certification standard. The certified-market pool's P97 is 212 ppb (provisional), at or above the government ceiling of 80 ppb, so the government maximum binds. Why lead is limited →
12 studies in the certified-market pool measured cadmium in Other cooking oils across 298 certified-market samples. The pooled distribution centres on a median of 6.5 ppb and reaches 30 ppb at the 95th percentile. Zhu 2011, Tayeb 2025, Matei 2025, Ntigoroku 2025, Mehri 2024, Samuel 2020, Acar 2012, Ashraf 2012 and 4 more.
HMTc sets 30 ppb (regulatory-alignment): the strictest applicable government maximum level for this product form, adopted under Method v2.0 as the default certification standard. The certified-market pool's P97 is 57 ppb (provisional), at or above the government ceiling of 30 ppb, so the government maximum binds. Why cadmium is limited →
8 studies in the certified-market pool measured total arsenic in Other cooking oils across 163 certified-market samples. The pooled distribution centres on a median of 18 ppb and reaches 45 ppb at the 95th percentile. Zhu 2011, Mehri 2024, Samuel 2020, Ashraf 2012, Chen 2001, Lin 2024, Famurewa 2023, Kheirati-Rounizi 2021.
HMTc sets 100 ppb (regulatory-alignment): the strictest applicable government maximum level for this product form, adopted under Method v2.0 as the default certification standard. The certified-market pool's P97 is 56 ppb, against a government ceiling of 100 ppb. Why total arsenic is limited →
2 studies in the certified-market pool measured total mercury in Other cooking oils across 21 certified-market samples. The pooled distribution centres on a median of 129 ppb and reaches 173 ppb at the 95th percentile. Samuel 2020, Famurewa 2023.
HMTc sets 20 ppb (regulatory-alignment): the strictest applicable government maximum level for this product form, adopted under Method v2.0 as the default certification standard. The certified-market pool's P97 is 175 ppb, at or above the government ceiling of 20 ppb, so the government maximum binds. Why total mercury is limited →
5 studies in the certified-market pool measured nickel in Other cooking oils across 142 certified-market samples. The pooled distribution centres on a median of 57 ppb and reaches 83 ppb at the 95th percentile. Zhu 2011, Matei 2025, Pehlivan 2008, Lin 2024, Famurewa 2023.
HMTc sets 100 ppb by read-across: No government sets a nickel maximum level for an edible oil or fat in any jurisdiction. This reads across the nearest applicable sovereign nickel ML on the oil's own product-as-placed-on-market (liquid) basis: EU Reg 2024/1987 nickel in infant and young-child formula (liquid form), 100 ug/kg. The more permissive EU fruiting-vegetable nickel ML (400 ug/kg) was rejected because it would admit oil at concentrations reported in contaminated samples. Nickel can also enter a fat as residual hydrogenation catalyst (Raney nickel) in any hardened or partially hydrogenated fraction; this ceiling caps that pathway too. Disclosed as a read-across, not direct EU governance of oil. Why nickel is limited →
1 study in the certified-market pool measured aluminium in Other cooking oils across 3 certified-market samples. The pooled distribution centres on a median of 4.9 ppb and reaches 21 ppb at the 95th percentile. Famurewa 2023.
HMTc sets 1 mg/kg by read-across: No government sets an aluminium maximum level for an edible oil or fat. The demonstrated aluminium pathway in a bottled oil is migration from packaging. This reads across the EU Reg 10/2011 aluminium specific-migration limit, 1000 ug/kg, the sovereign instrument that bounds aluminium migrating into food from a contact material (derived against the EFSA aluminium tolerable weekly intake). The specific-migration limit is applied at face value as a conservative total-content ceiling, disclosed as the nearest sovereign anchor, not direct total-content governance of oil. Why aluminium is limited →
Risk Flag
On the published occurrence literature to date, Cooking oils, other (canola, sunflower, coconut, avocado, sesame) shows no systematic gap between typical market levels and the limit: the limit being the strictest government maximum for the product (Method v2.0). Certification is decided on a product’s own tested result, not on a distribution; an individual lot or supplier can still exceed a limit.
See the cross-category summary of the ingredients that most often struggle.
Cite this standard
Pendergrass, K. (2026). Cooking oils, other (canola, sunflower, coconut, avocado, sesame): HMTc standard (Standard No. 10.83138/hmtc.std.30.cooking-oils-other). Institute of Contaminant Standards. https://doi.org/10.83138/hmtc.std.30.cooking-oils-other
© 2026 Institute of Contaminant Standards / Heavy Metal Certified. All rights reserved.
The literature baseline for every analyte is maintained independently at the Heavy Metal Index. This certification standard applies those findings; the two are kept editorially separate by design.