Prop 65

California Proposition 65 FAQ

1. What is California Proposition 65?
   

   Proposition 65 (Prop 65), or the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, is a unique California "right to know" law that requires businesses to provide warnings for exposures to chemicals listed by the State of California as causing cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm. The law covers more than 900 chemicals, including some naturally occurring ones like heavy metals found in soil and water, which can make their way into a variety of food products, including organic products.

2. Why do some North Bay Trading Company products have Prop 65 warnings?
   

   Many plants can naturally absorb trace amounts of minerals, including heavy metals, from the soils in which they are grown. Prop 65’s warning threshold levels are almost always much lower than health-based thresholds set by U.S. federal health and safety regulators, as well as those elsewhere in the world. For reproductive toxins, for example, the level is set at 1,000 times below the level at which no effect has been observed based on animal studies.

   To ensure our customers have as much information as possible, we provide Prop 65 warnings for some of our products. We provide these warnings to inform our customers, but this does not mean that eating any of our products poses a health risk.

3. Is it safe to eat North Bay Trading Company products with Prop 65 warnings?
   

   Yes, it is safe to eat all our products as part of a balanced diet. Our products are routinely tested to confirm that they comply with FDA and all other health-based laws and regulations. In addition to meeting these standards, we sign up for voluntary third-party Global Food Safety Initiative food safety audits, while also participating in the Safe Quality Food (SQF) Safety Program administered by the AIB International certification body. We are audited for SQF Food Safety for Manufacturing (Modules 2 and 11), plus SQF Food Safety Code for Storage and Distribution (Module 12).

4. What other steps does North Bay Trading Company take to ensure the safety of its products?
   

   We screen our ingredients by quality and time elapsed by harvest. For example, our dried ingredients are fresh vibrant pieces, versus small faded bits, and our Canadian wild rice is harvested from pristine northern lakes and is 100% certified organic. North Bay Trading Company keeps current with the Organic certification requirements for all products that it markets as organic. For more information on our food safety standards, please see [our Food Safety Page [OR] https://www.northbaytrading.com/about-north-bay-trading].

5. Where can I learn more about California Prop 65?
   

   The California agency that oversees Prop 65, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), provides information about Prop 65 [on its website / at https://www.p65warnings.ca.gov/fact-sheets/foods ]. OEHHA, for example, advises that “some foods contain Proposition 65-listed chemicals. This does not mean that these foods should never be eaten. But interested consumers can decide what and how often to eat certain foods if they wish to reduce their exposure to these chemicals.”

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