Spinach and similar leaves — HMTc Standard

How limits are set

CELL RESOLUTION RULE, applied uniformly across all eight rows. (R1) Where a credible sovereign government writes a maximum level for this product form in this row's native basis, the cell is the strictest such value and is tagged regulatory-alignment.

(R2) Where the exact cell is unregulated but a credible sovereign writes a maximum level for the SAME commodity in an adjacent form or basis, the cell is a disclosed read-across from that named row, taken at face value only where face value is the conservative (stricter) direction.

(R3) Where no sovereign instrument reaches the commodity at all, the cell is a CONTROL: testing is mandatory, an escalation rule is published, and no number is invented.

Aluminium is a control in all eight rows because no jurisdiction regulates aluminium as a produce contaminant. Hexavalent chromium is a substantiated not-material determination wherever a total-chromium parent is published for the row and a control wherever it is not; it is never a published number. Methylmercury is a substantiated not-material determination in all eight rows, bounded by the published total-mercury ceiling, because terrestrial produce has no aquatic methylation compartment.

TAXONOMY LUMPING IS DISCLOSED, NOT SILENTLY RESOLVED: several sovereign instruments split classes that this taxonomy carries as a single row (fruiting versus bulb versus brassica versus legume vegetables inside non-root-vegetables; temperate versus tropical roots and tubers inside root-tuber-vegetables; table olives versus pickled cucumbers versus fermented brassicas inside pickled-fermented-vegetables; pome, stone, citrus and berry fruit inside fresh-fruit).

Because one published HMTc value must be met by every product in the row, each such row binds the strictest value applicable to any member, which is materially stricter than law for the looser members.

Every collapsed split is named in that row's scope_note, and the recommended taxonomy splits are recorded as outstanding items rather than resolved by picking a looser residual-class value, which would let HMTc certify a lot that is unlawful in a market of sale.

Master Limit Table

All values in ppb (µg/kg), as-sold basis. 6 of 11 analytes carry a firm ceiling; the remaining 4 are governed by mandatory control or the total-metal screen with no standalone number, itemised in the derivation below. A brand meeting every firm value on a like-for-like basis, and passing every control, qualifies for the mark.

Every claim analyte is equal at the gate. A product is certified only when every analyte is at or below 100% of its published government floor or disclosed read-across; above the limit, on any metal, it is not certified and carries no mark.

Derivation

The full derivation for Spinach and similar leaves. 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.

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. &sup4; no sovereign maximum exists for this analyte in this product, but a credible exposure pathway does — it is screened on every lot under ALARA against the tightest analogous reference, not assigned an invented number.

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.

Risk Flag

On the published occurrence literature to date, Spinach and similar leaves 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.