California Proposition 65 Compliance & Warning

At SCNS Sports Foods, we are committed to transparency and quality in every product we offer. California’s Proposition 65 requires certain products sold in the state to carry a warning label if they contain any listed substances above extremely low thresholds. This includes naturally occurring elements, such as trace amounts of minerals found in soil.

Our bars contain trace amounts of lead that naturally occur in ingredients like cocoa. These levels are well within FDA safety guidelines (U.S. Food & Drug Administration, 2006) and similar regulations in Europe (European Food Safety Authority, 2010) and Australia (Food Standards Australia New Zealand, 2012). However, because California’s Prop 65 law mandates warnings at 1/1000th of the “Safe Harbor” level (OEHHA, California Environmental Protection Agency, 2021), we are required to include this notice on shipments to California, even though no other state or country has the same requirement.

To put it in perspective, many everyday foods—like spinach, green beans, and nuts—contain significantly higher levels of naturally occurring lead than the Prop 65 threshold. According to California’s Agricultural Soil Lead Study (Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 2009), green beans contain 28.75 micrograms of lead per cup—over 50 times the Prop 65 limit, and spinach contains 5.2 micrograms per serving, which is 10 times the Prop 65 threshold. The USDA-recommended daily servings of vegetables often exceed Prop 65 limits multiple times over (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2015).

While we believe Prop 65’s limits are unnecessarily strict, we comply with the law. Until regulations change, you’ll see this warning on our products shipped to California, but rest assured that our bars remain safe for consumption.

Please contact us with any concerns or questions.