Ground cinnamon sold across six states was pulled off shelves over elevated lead

Six states are named in Galil Importing Corp’s recall of Lior Cinnamon Ground Seasoning: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida and Illinois. The importer, based in Hauppauge, New York, announced the action on September 24, 2026, after a sample tested by the Maryland Department of Health showed elevated lead. No illnesses have been reported to date.

The recalled item is the 90-gram transparent plastic container, UPC 794711005484, lot GAP11304, packed six to a case. According to the notice, it shipped to retail stores, grocery stores, delis and supermarkets between November 18, 2025 and September 7, 2026, a window of nearly ten months in which the cinnamon could have moved from store shelves into home pantries and restaurant kitchens that never learned of any problem.

Six states and a ten-month shipping window

In the recall notice posted by the FDA, Galil lists stores in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida and Illinois as the places the cinnamon was sold. The company says consumers “should not consume the product and should either discard it or return it to the place of purchase for a refund.” Galil can be reached at 1-516-496-7400, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern. The company also says it has begun enhanced testing and has opened an investigation of its suppliers, which is the step that would eventually show where the lead entered the supply chain.

A single lot is involved, which narrows the search for anyone checking a pantry: the code GAP11304 on the container is the one to match.

The dates leave a visible lag. The last shipment in the notice went out on September 7, 2026, and the recall was announced 17 days later, on September 24, which means product from the window had already been on sale, and in some cases already bought, by the time shoppers were told to discard it. Across the 294 days from the first shipment on November 18, 2025 to that last one, Galil sold the cinnamon to stores in all six states, and the notice does not break the volume down by state or by retailer.

Maryland testing as the trigger

The detection came from state public health testing rather than from the importer. The Maryland Department of Health tested a sample and found elevated lead, and that result set the recall in motion. Maryland has done this before. In February 2024, its health department collected cinnamon samples that tested high for lead, a finding recorded in the FDA notice for El Chilar HF, LLC, whose recall was expanded in August 2024 and blamed “potentially adulterated raw material from the supplier” for the contamination.

The FDA’s own alert of March 6, 2024 identified elevated lead in ground cinnamon from six distributors, at 2.03 to 3.4 parts per million, and recommended voluntary recalls. The brands were La Fiesta, Marcum, Swad, Supreme Tradition, El Chilar and MK. The agency said it was investigating the sources of the contamination, told consumers to discard the products, continued import surveillance, and sent guidance letters to manufacturers on safety controls. Lior is the latest entry in a line of spice recalls that began with that alert. On the 2024 products, the FDA wrote that “Long-term exposure (months to years) to elevated levels of lead in the diet could contribute to adverse health effects,” with children at heightened risk of neurological damage, learning disabilities and developmental delays, and it reported no illnesses at the time.

Lead exposure in children and FDA action levels

Galil’s notice describes the health picture in careful terms. Short-term, low-level exposure may cause no symptoms, and an elevated blood lead level may be the only sign. Chronic exposure in children over weeks or months carries the risk of “permanent damage to the central nervous system,” including learning disorders and developmental defects. Adults face different risks, but the notice focuses on children, who absorb more of what they swallow relative to body weight.

The CDC’s childhood lead poisoning program is blunter: “There are no safe levels of lead in the blood.” The agency uses a blood lead reference value of 3.5 micrograms per deciliter to flag children for follow-up, and roughly 500,000 U.S. children meet or exceed it. The CDC lists deteriorating lead paint, lead pipes, contaminated soil, certain imported candies, medicines, toys and jewelry, and parental work or hobbies among the exposure routes, so a spice is one source among several.

The FDA’s Closer to Zero program issued final guidance on January 6, 2025 setting action levels for lead in processed foods intended for babies and young children. In FDA terms, an action level is a level of contamination at which a food may be regarded as adulterated under section 402(a)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The guidance rests on the agency’s view that children’s smaller bodies and metabolism make them more vulnerable.

The Lior notice describes the lead only as elevated. It publishes no concentration for lot GAP11304, so the result cannot be compared with the 2.03 to 3.4 ppm range the FDA reported in 2024, and the Maryland Department of Health’s measurement remains the figure missing from the public record.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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