Food Lead BLL Calculator
Enter the lead concentration measured in each food and how much of it people eat each day. The calculator returns daily lead ingestion, the resulting increase in blood lead level (BLL), each food’s share of that increase, and how each food’s Codex maximum level compares with a health-based benchmark.
Research Initiative
1. Who is eating
Use child consumption rates with the child slope and adult rates with the adult slope.
FDA uses 1.6 (child) and 0.4 (adult). JECFA 2011 ranges: 0.5–1.6 child, 0.23–0.7 adult. Choose Custom to enter another value.
Aspirational level: the total BLL increase from all foods should stay below this. Adjust if your programme uses another target.
2. Foods, consumption and measured lead
Orange cells are inputs. Everything else calculates as you type.
| Food category | Daily consumption (g/day) |
Consumption data source | Measured Pb (mg/kg = ppm) |
Pb ingestion (µg/day) |
BLL increase (µg/L) |
Share of dietary BLL increase |
Codex ML (mg/kg) |
BLL increase at Codex level (µg/L) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | — | — | — | ||||||
3. Result
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How it calculates
- Pb ingestion (µg/day) = measured Pb (mg/kg = ppm = µg/g) × consumption (g/day).
- BLL increase (µg/L) = Pb ingestion × slope. Slope = 1.6 µg/L per µg Pb/day (child) or 0.4 (adult): the linear dietary conversion factor of Carlisle & Wade (1992), used by FDA and supported by JECFA 2011.
- Share = that food’s BLL increase ÷ total BLL increase.
- BLL increase at Codex level = Codex ML × consumption × slope: the increase from that food alone if it contained lead at exactly the Codex maximum. Red when above the benchmark.
Food weights should be fresh weight, as consumed, not dry weight. For drinking water, mL/day ≈ g/day and the WHO guideline value is in mg/L.
Where to get inputs
- Measured Pb: ICP-MS results for the food as consumed, averaged across samples.
- Consumption: FAO/WHO GIFT individual food consumption data, fao.org/gift. Pick the age group matching the slope.
- Codex MLs: filled automatically from Codex CXS 193-1995. Spices and “Other” have no Codex ML: enter a national limit if one applies.
Caveats
Linear slopes are steady-state, population-average approximations valid at low intakes. They ignore non-dietary sources, nutritional status (iron or calcium deficiency raises absorption) and individual variability. All BLL values are in µg/L.
Codex maximum levels used
| Food category | ML (mg/kg) | Note |
|---|
Sources
- JECFA (2011). Evaluation of certain food additives and contaminants, 73rd report; lead monograph.
- Carlisle JC, Wade MJ (1992). Predicting blood lead concentrations from environmental concentrations. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol 16:280–289.
- Flannery BM et al. (2020). U.S. FDA interim reference levels for dietary lead exposure in children and women of childbearing age. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol 110:104516.
- Flannery BM, Middleton KB (2022). Updated interim reference levels for dietary lead to support FDA’s Closer to Zero action plan. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol 133:105202.
- Codex Alimentarius CXS 193-1995, General Standard for Contaminants and Toxins in Food and Feed (as amended). WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality.
- FAO/WHO GIFT: Global Individual Food consumption data Tool.