Ground cinnamon is one of the most common baking and spice cabinet staples in the U.S., and federal regulators have continued to examine it more closely after a wider food safety investigation tied contaminated cinnamon to lead exposure concerns. That scrutiny narrowed sharply on March 6, 2024, when the FDA issued a public health alert and recommended voluntary recalls for certain ground cinnamon products after testing found elevated lead levels. The agency’s actions, later expanded with additional product notices, turned an everyday pantry item into a continuing food safety story with national reach.
FDA alert put specific cinnamon brands and lot codes under recall pressure
The FDA said on March 6, 2024, that testing showed certain ground cinnamon products contained elevated levels of lead and that prolonged exposure could be unsafe, especially for children. In the same action, the agency recommended voluntary recalls for products from six distributors after a targeted survey of discount-store cinnamon, according to the FDA’s safety alert. The alert followed the October 2023 recall of apple cinnamon puree and applesauce pouches that federal investigators linked to contaminated cinnamon used as an ingredient.
One of the clearest company recalls that followed was issued by Colonna Brothers, Inc. of North Bergen, New Jersey, on March 6, 2024. The company recalled 1.5-ounce Marcum Ground Cinnamon and 2.25-ounce Supreme Tradition Ground Cinnamon because of elevated lead levels, according to its FDA-posted announcement. The affected Marcum lot codes were Best By 10/16/25 10DB and Best By 04/06/25 0400B1.
The affected Supreme Tradition lot codes were Best By 09/29/25 09E8, 04/17/25 04E11, 12/19/25 12C2, 04/12/25 04ECB12, 08/24/25 08A, 04/21/25 04E5, and 09/22/2025 09E20, the company stated. The FDA alert described lead concentrations in the March 2024 group ranging from 2.03 to 3.4 parts per million. The FDA advised consumers not to buy and to throw away the products named in the alert, while Colonna Brothers said customers with the recalled jars could discard them or return them to the store for a full refund.
State-by-state distribution details show how widely the affected products moved
The federal notices make clear that this was not limited to one retailer or one region. Colonna Brothers said its recalled cinnamon was distributed nationwide through retail stores and mail order, but its company announcement did not publish a full 50-state list. In the FDA’s original March 6, 2024 alert materials, specific sampled states tied to some of the affected products included Missouri and Maryland, while the named retail chains included Save A Lot, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, La Joya Morelense, La Superior SuperMercados, Patel Brothers, and SF Supermarket.
Later FDA updates added more brands and more specific state distribution information. In the agency’s expanded cinnamon alert, Durra brand ground cinnamon was listed as distributed to grocery stores in California and Michigan; Wise Wife brand ground cinnamon was listed as distributed to retailers in New Jersey, New York, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Ohio; Super Brand Cinnamon Powder 4 oz was tied to an Asian supermarket in Little Rock, Arkansas; Asli Cinnamon Powder 7 oz was tied to Columbia, Missouri; SWAD Ground Cinnamon was tied to Connecticut; Compania Indillor Orientale Ground Cinnamon was tied to Connecticut; ALB Flavor Ground Cinnamon was tied to Connecticut; and Shahzada Brand Cinnamon Powder 7 oz was tied to New York.
That means the states specifically named in the FDA materials include Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Virginia. The company has not released a comprehensive city-by-city list for every recalled or alerted product, and some FDA entries said retail location details were still being requested. No single FDA enforcement report number, such as a Recall #F-series classification, was clearly published in the underlying company recall notice reviewed here.
The broader concern came from lead testing, not a change in how cinnamon is usually used
The immediate cause of the March 2024 FDA action was targeted product testing. The agency said it began a survey of ground cinnamon sold at discount retail stores after the October 2023 applesauce pouch recall raised concerns about lead toxicity in children and pointed investigators toward cinnamon as the ingredient of concern. FDA officials later said state partners in Maryland and Missouri also collected samples through the Laboratory Flexible Funding Model.
The FDA has been careful to distinguish between the highly contaminated cinnamon associated with the applesauce pouch case and the lower, but still concerning, lead levels found in the later ground cinnamon survey. In the March 2024 alert, the agency said the ground cinnamon products it flagged contained lead levels significantly below the thousands of parts per million found in cinnamon tied to the puree pouch case. Even so, the FDA said prolonged exposure to the products in the cinnamon alert could be unsafe and recommended market removal.
For shoppers, the practical takeaway remains limited to the specific products and codes identified in federal notices and company recall announcements. The FDA said consumers should throw away and not buy the products listed in its alert, while Colonna Brothers said buyers of its recalled Marcum and Supreme Tradition products could discard them or return them for a full refund. As of the FDA materials reviewed, no illnesses had been reported in connection with the recalled Colonna Brothers products, and the agency said it would continue working with manufacturers, distributors, and retailers to remove unsafe cinnamon from the market.