How can you keep yourself safe from forever chemicals and cadmium in food? (Part 2/2)

Cadmium, forever chemicals… these contaminants poison the food we eat. From the anxieties these chemicals breed in the public mind and the best practices to adopt to avoid the worst impacts to the small towns struggling to decontaminate their drinking water, FRANCE 24 has prepared a three-part series to break down these mounting food scandals. You can read part 1 here.

In the beginning, there were pesticides. Then came PFAS: per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances quickly dubbed “forever chemicals” for their uncanny endurance in soil, water and living flesh. Most recently, it's been cadmium.

Each time, health authorities issue variations of the same warning: all of these contaminants do us harm, and they are everywhere – even in our tap water.

While the most meaningful measures to fight against these contaminants are found in the realm of political action, there are still some things that individuals can do to reduce their risk. What foods should you avoid, and what should you be eating more of? FRANCE 24 draws together some of the best practices to follow to limit your exposure.

When it comes to cadmium, be careful with cereals

Along with tobacco, food is a main cause of cadmium poisoning, a vast study released by the France's National Food Safety Agency (ANSES) revealed in March. Being mindful about what exactly is on your plate is therefore an effective way to keep yourself safe from this heavy metal, which builds up in the liver and kidney and raises the risk of cancers and cardiovascular diseases.

But to do this, you need to look at two different factors: not just which ingredients are the most commonly contaminated, but also – most importantly – how often you're eating them.

In 2012, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) analysed 144 food groups to measure their exposure to cadmium. That study remains one of the most detailed on the subject to date, and it created a list of the most highly contaminated foodstuffs.

Among them, seaweed, oilseeds such as sunflower seeds, mushrooms, animal organs, molluscs – especially oysters, mussels and clams – frog legs, dark chocolate and crustaceans all have cadmium concentrations in excess of 10 micrograms per kilogram, considered a high contamination threshold. The first step, it would seem, would be to limit consumption of these foods.

That being said, unless one is an avid consumer of frog legs and oysters, these foods make up a relatively small proportion of the population's overall exposure – most people eat them only very occasionally, and then in small amounts.

Unfortunately, most contamination comes largely from products that many people eat every day – cereals such as pasta, bread or biscuits, as well as potatoes and certain vegetables. Despite the fact that the amount of cadmium found in these foods remains relatively low, they're things that are consumed regularly in many populations – even multiple times a day. The foods the most and least contaminated by cadmium.

Without going so far as to push for the removal of baguettes and bucatini pasta from menus, Pierre Souvet, a cardiologist, president of the French Health and Environment Association and the author of a guide on minimising cadmium intake, advises “varying your diet as much as possible”.

If you're already eating pasta for lunch, “you can replace breakfast cereals or cakes and biscuits as an afternoon snack with fruit compote and yogurt”, he suggests. “And regularly choose dishes made with legumes instead of pasta.”

And to choose these alternatives wisely, you can opt for the least-contaminated foods: dairy products, eggs, citrus and other types of fruit and legumes such as beans and lentils.

He also advised varying where in the world you're buying your food from.

"We know that cadmium levels in food depend in part on where the food comes from, because some soils are rich in cadmium," he explains. This is the case with chocolate from South America, for example, which is often more contaminated than its African counterpart.

Souvet had one final piece of advice for those wanting to limit their cadmium exposure: watch out for possible deficiencies in iron, zinc or calcium, which increase the body's risk of absorbing the heavy metal. In this area, he said, women tend to be more at risk than men.

When it comes to forever chemicals, watch out for fish

As with cadmium, food is the main way that the French, and likely many other, populations are exposed to certain forever chemicals – in particular, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, the EFSA warns. Despite this, there has long been a dearth of information about just how present these harmful substances are in food.

In 2025, environmental NGO Générations Futures sought to change that by analysing the official data that was available on thousands of samples tested in France, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands for substances from the broader PFAS family – PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS and PFNA.

The results showed that 69 percent of fish, 55 percent of molluscs and animal organs, 39 percent of eggs, 27 percent of crustaceans, 23 percent of dairy products and 14 percent of meat were contaminated with at least one of the four regulated PFAS.

In France, where the data were limited to fish, animal organs and meat, contamination rates reached 88 percent, 56 percent and 35 percent, respectively. On the other hand, red meat and poultry (14 percent), vegetables (14 percent) and fruit (three percent) seemed to be the least affected. The foods the most and least contaminated by PFAS.

Given these results, it might then be recommended to limit your consumption of freshwater fish, animal organs, molluscs, crustaceans and animal milk, instead seeking out fibre-rich foods like vegetables, fruit and legumes.

But Générations Futures spokesperson François Veillerette said these findings remained very general.

“In reality, PFAS concentrations can vary enormously within the same food category,” he says.

Among fish, for example, perch and eels contain high levels of PFAS, while sea bream and salmon contain very little.

“Even from one food to another, PFAS concentrations can vary widely,” he adds. “For example, some eggs may have high levels of PFAS, especially if they come from an area where a chemical plant is located. Others may have none at all.”

Watch more EU moves to tighten rules on harmful pollutants: The invisible danger of 'forever chemicals'

"Unfortunately, though, there is often a lack of transparency regarding the origin of these products. Most of the time, we never know if our eggs come from a farm near a chemical plant, for example," he says.

As with cadmium, he adds, "the best thing to do is therefore to vary not only the types of food, but also the sources and brands for similar products”.

“In short, don't put all your eggs in one basket.”
It's also important to note that the NGO's study only focuses on four substances among a vast array of forever chemicals.

For example, it has nothing to say about the presence or absence of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), which is considered harmful to childbearing. When it comes to our understanding of just how present forever chemicals are in the food we eat, there's a great deal of work left to be done.

Drinking water

Beyond what we put on our plates, drinking water is also often at the centre of the debate around PFAS pollution.

To keep an eye on the contamination levels of the tap water you drink during meals, Générations Futures launched an interactive map for the French population called "Dans mon eau" (“In My Water”). This citizen-driven tool collects and updates official data in real time, allowing people to find out the quality of the water coming out of their tap at home. It could serve as a model for other countries.

To reduce your exposure to tap-water-borne forever chemicals, you can use a water filter pitcher or – much more effective, but much more expensive – filtration systems that can be professionally installed under your sink.

Going organic

Whether it came to forever chemicals, cadmium or pesticides, both specialists had one broad recommendation in common: opt for organic produce.

"Organic foods are significantly less contaminated with pesticide residues and other pollutants,” Souvet says. “For example, a 2014 meta-analysis estimated that organic foods contained, on average, 48 percent less cadmium.”

A study titled BioNutriNet also shows that choosing an organic diet can be better for your health in general. The study found that eating organic food is associated with a reduction in a number of health risks, including cancer (-25 percent) – particularly breast cancer in postmenopausal women (-36 percent) and lymphoma (-75 percent). There is also a reduction in the risk of type 2 diabetes (-35 percent) and obesity (-31 percent).

Will we be able to de-contaminate?

"Unfortunately, all these efforts and best practices can, at best, help us adopt a low-risk approach," Veillerette says. "It seems unrealistic today to think that we can completely protect ourselves from any form of contamination."

In the face of this bitter truth, a vital question emerges: will we ever find a way to fully rid our bodies of these harmful substances?

Researchers have in recent years begun looking for ways to speed up the process, given that both PFAS and cadmium can endure for years in our bodies.

In Australia, for example, a team of researchers is currently studying the use of blood transfusions to decontaminate people heavily exposed to PFAS – which primarily bind to proteins in the body, particularly in the blood and liver.

Some 285 firefighters received blood or plasma transfusions every six weeks for one year. In both cases, these transfusions helped lower their PFAS levels.

Danish researchers have opted for a different approach, trying to intervene during the digestive process itself, during which certain PFAS are absorbed into the body instead of being evacuated.

To this end, they are studying the properties of cholestyramine, a drug normally used to lower cholesterol.

The drug was administered to residents of the town of Korsor, Denmark, identified as one of Europe's main PFAS contamination “hot spots”. Within 12 weeks, their PFAS levels had decreased by 60 percent.

When it comes to cadmium, clinical trials are currently underway to study the effects of hemodialysis – that is to say, removing a patient's blood and passing it through a filter outside their body to cut out toxic pollutants. As you might expect, it's a treatment as invasive as it is costly – but one that could prove a necessary solution for people suffering from extreme contamination.

While these results may be promising, there's a great deal of research still to be done to confirm their effectiveness – and assess their concrete effects on the patients' long-term health.

“For now, the best course of action is to prevent contamination,” Souvet says.

And, both experts agreed, that means putting into action public policy measures that reduce contamination at the source.

This article has been translated from the original in French.