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 Olive oil (virgin, refined, pomace)’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 Olive oil (virgin, refined, pomace). 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.
7 studies in the certified-market pool measured lead in Olive oil across 79 certified-market samples. The pooled distribution centres on a median of 33 ppb and reaches 66 ppb at the 95th percentile. La-Pera 2010, Zhu 2011, Charfi 2026, Pehlivan 2008, Sallam 2025, Llorent-Martinez 2014, Ashraf 2012.
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 70 ppb, against a government ceiling of 80 ppb. Why lead is limited →
14 studies in the certified-market pool measured cadmium in Olive oil across 852 certified-market samples. The pooled distribution centres on a median of 3 ppb and reaches 3.2 ppb at the 95th percentile. Ashraf 2012, Zhu 2011, Charfi 2026, Matei 2025, Ntigoroku 2025, Sallam 2025, Lin 2024, Vella 2024 and 6 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 3.2 ppb, against a government ceiling of 30 ppb. Why cadmium is limited →
7 studies in the certified-market pool measured total arsenic in Olive oil across 57 certified-market samples. The pooled distribution centres on a median of 1.3 ppb and reaches 422 ppb at the 95th percentile. Kabaran 2020, Zhu 2011, Luka 2019, Lin 2024, Charfi 2026, Sallam 2025, Llorent-Martinez 2014.
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 608 ppb (provisional), at or above the government ceiling of 100 ppb, so the government maximum binds. Why total arsenic is limited →
The corpus holds 1 measurement of inorganic arsenic in Olive oil (2 samples reported across those studies), which the determination below is tested against: Bodur 2023.
HMTc sets no standalone inorganic arsenic limit for Olive oil. Inorganic arsenic has no separate maximum level for edible oils in any jurisdiction; arsenic in oils is regulated as total As (see the tAs cell, Codex CXS 210-1999/CXS 19-1981 = 100 ug/kg), which arithmetically bounds the inorganic fraction (iAs <= tAs). Bodur et al. 2023 speciated inorganic arsenic in market olive oil and found arsenite/arsenate non-detect. The refined-oil arsenic pool sits at ~1-3 ug/kg total. Why inorganic arsenic is limited →
1 study in the corpus measured total mercury in Olive oil (6 samples reported across those studies): Sallam 2025.
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. Why total mercury is limited →
8 studies in the certified-market pool measured nickel in Olive oil across 79 certified-market samples. The pooled distribution centres on a median of 28 ppb and reaches 529 ppb at the 95th percentile. Kabaran 2020, Zhu 2011, Charfi 2026, Luka 2019, Pehlivan 2008, Lin 2024, Matei 2025, Llorent-Martinez 2014.
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 olive 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 the alternative food-type sibling; it was rejected because it would admit oil at concentrations the primary literature flags as contaminated (ground-harvest samples reported at 220-330 ug/kg). Disclosed as a read-across, not direct EU governance of oil; clean commercial olive oil clears 100 ug/kg with headroom (Kabaran 2020 Cyprus n=27 mean 30, max 54; Llorent-Martinez 2014 virgin olive oil below detection). Why nickel is limited →
2 studies in the certified-market pool measured aluminium in Olive oil across 13 certified-market samples. The pooled distribution centres on a median of 246 ppb and reaches 648 ppb at the 95th percentile. Charfi 2026, Llorent-Martinez 2014.
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 (Charfi 2026: 670 ug/kg from aluminium containers versus 120 ug/kg or below for glass and PET). 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; the elevated case arose from aluminium metal containers, and the migration limit is 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, Olive oil (virgin, refined, pomace) 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). Olive oil (virgin, refined, pomace): HMTc standard (Standard No. 10.83138/hmtc.std.30.olive-oil). Institute of Contaminant Standards. https://doi.org/10.83138/hmtc.std.30.olive-oil
© 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.