For any unaware, California has a fun citizen’s initiative commonly referred to as “Proposition 65” or “Prop 65” – it’s the reason many consumer products have a warning that “this product contains chemical known to cause cancer in California” (or similar) which is generally followed by everyone thinking “good thing I’m not in California!” I’ll not get into the validity of the “No Significant Risk Levels” and “Maximum Allowable Dose Levels” established as part of Prop 65, they are what they are, and if a company sells something to a resident of California, a California resident (usually a lawyer) has the ability to sue if there is not a warning and the product contains levels of heavy metals or other contaminants higher than the levels established. I can say that the heavy metal levels in Proposition 65 are low enough that coffee shops have had to post warnings and Disneyland has warnings in their picnic area.

Keto Chow was served a notice that “Safe Products for Californians” intends to sue Keto Chow for not having warnings that Keto Chow contains heavy metals, specifically lead. The tactic being that many of the levels defined by Proposition 65 are so absurdly low that quite literally EVERYTHING has enough lead to qualify for needing a warning. Also, since Keto Chow contains protein, and the ‘cool’ thing to do these days is use plant protein which tends to be from China and contains a lot of heavy metals, logically Keto Chow will contain heavy metals (like Soylent™ does). The thing is: we don’t use plant protein, instead we only use protein created by sustainable mobile bioreactors (ruminants); in fact, very few of the ingredients come from plants and the animals don’t absorb heavy metals.

Due to the lawsuit, we paid for an independent lab to test for heavy metals in Keto Chow, the complaint was only for “Lead and Lead Compounds” but we went ahead and had Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, and Mercury tested. The test has a minimum measurable level of 0.01 mg/kg of material, and each meal of Keto Chow is around 44-50g of powder. Here are the measured levels of heavy metals in Keto Chow, the serving size, and what your exposure is compared to the allowed levels with one caveat: the cadmium level is only established for inhalation, if you ingest it orally there is not established level.

Lead is interesting, Proposition 65 establishes a “No Significant Risk Levels” for causing cancer set at 0.015 mg or 15 micrograms per day. Lead also has a “Maximum Allowable Dose Levels” (MADL) for causing reproductive harm of 0.0005 mg or 0.5 micrograms per day. The MADL is set by looking at the level that no observable effect occurs and dividing that by 1000. In other words, if a toxin causes an effect at 10 units, the MADL would be defined at 0.01 units; meaning that the dose where lead will cause reproductive harm is 0.5 mg or 500 micrograms per day. I guess it’s surprising that many of the flavors of Keto Chow do NOT contain enough lead to require a warning label. Notably, the ones with the highest levels are those that contain spices or other plant-derived flavorings.

Flavor Arsenic mg/kg Cadmium mg/kg Lead mg/kg Mercury mg/kg Serving Size (g)
Banana 0.013 < 0.01 0.011 < 0.01 44.434
Chicken Soup 0.013 < 0.01 0.011 < 0.01 45.449
Chocolate 0.015 0.031 0.014 < 0.01 48.504
Chocolate Mint 0.013 < 0.01 0.013 < 0.01 46.104
Chocolate Toffee 0.013 < 0.01 0.012 < 0.01 46.541
Cookies & Cream 0.014 < 0.01 0.011 < 0.01 44.504
Egg Nog 0.014 < 0.01 0.013 < 0.01 46.039
Mocha 0.014 0.023 0.023 < 0.01 48.099
Natural Strawberry 0.013 < 0.01 0.012 < 0.01 44.824
Orange Cream 0.013 < 0.01 0.012 < 0.01 46.541
Pumpkin Spice 0.013 < 0.01 0.013 < 0.01 46.679
Raspberry Cheesecake 0.013 < 0.01 0.013 < 0.01 46.454
Root Beer Float 0.013 < 0.01 0.013 < 0.01 46.542
Salted Caramel 0.012 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01 44.804
Snickerdoodle 0.014 < 0.01 0.026 < 0.01 46.069
Strawberry 0.013 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01 44.604
Vanilla 0.010 < 0.01 0.011 < 0.01 44.654

If you eat a meal of keto chow your exposure (as defined for cancer risk by Proposition 65) will be:

Flavor Arsenic (mg) Cadmium (mg) Lead (mg) Mercury (mg)
Banana 0.00058 mg – 5.8% risk exposure Too low to be measured 0.00049 mg – 3.3% risk exposure Too low to be measured
Chicken Soup 0.00059 mg – 5.9% risk exposure Too low to be measured 0.00050 mg – 3.3% risk exposure Too low to be measured
Chocolate 0.00073 mg – 7.3% risk exposure 0.0015 mg – 36.7% risk exposure (if inhaled) 0.00068 mg – 4.5% risk exposure Too low to be measured
Chocolate Mint 0.00060 mg – 6.0% risk exposure Too low to be measured 0.00060 mg – 4.0% risk exposure Too low to be measured
Chocolate Toffee 0.00061 mg – 6.1% risk exposure Too low to be measured 0.00056 mg – 3.7% risk exposure Too low to be measured
Cookies & Cream 0.00062 mg – 6.2% risk exposure Too low to be measured 0.00049 mg – 3.3% risk exposure Too low to be measured
Egg Nog 0.00064 mg – 6.4% risk exposure Too low to be measured 0.00060 mg – 4.0% risk exposure Too low to be measured
Mocha 0.00067 mg – 6.7% risk exposure 0.0011 mg – 27% risk exposure (if inhaled) 0.00111 mg – 7.4% risk exposure Too low to be measured
Natural Strawberry 0.00058 mg – 5.8% risk exposure Too low to be measured 0.00054 mg – 3.6% risk exposure Too low to be measured
Orange Cream 0.00061 mg – 6.1% risk exposure Too low to be measured 0.00056 mg – 3.7% risk exposure Too low to be measured
Pumpkin Spice 0.00061 mg – 6.1% risk exposure Too low to be measured 0.00061 mg – 4.0% risk exposure Too low to be measured
Raspberry Cheesecake 0.00060 mg – 6.0% risk exposure Too low to be measured 0.00060 mg – 4.0% risk exposure Too low to be measured
Root Beer Float 0.00061 mg – 6.1% risk exposure Too low to be measured 0.00061 mg – 4.0% risk exposure Too low to be measured
Salted Caramel 0.00054 mg – 5.4% risk exposure Too low to be measured Too low to be measured Too low to be measured
Snickerdoodle 0.00064 mg – 6.4% risk exposure Too low to be measured 0.00120 mg – 8.0% risk exposure Too low to be measured
Strawberry 0.00058 mg – 5.8% risk exposure Too low to be measured Too low to be measured Too low to be measured
Vanilla 0.00045 mg – 4.5% risk exposure Too low to be measured Too low to be measured Too low to be measured

Chocolate and Mocha both contain cocoa powder, a plant product, and both have the highest levels of heavy metals on the list; though the levels are still far below the very low bar set by Proposition 65 to necessitate a warning for cancer. The threshold for needing a “reproductive harm” warning is 0.00050 mg – as a precaution against future litigation we just went ahead and put the warning up for everything.