1 / FDA Consumer Health Information / U.S. Food and Drug Administration SEPTEMBER 2011

Consumer Health Information

www.fda.gov/consumer

FDA: Apple Juice 

is Safe To Drink

Arsenic and apple juice. 

Not words you like to see 

in the same sentence. 

There has been publicity 

recently over the amount of 

arsenic in the apple juice that 

many children drink.

But the Food and Drug Administration has every confidence in 

the safety of apple juice. 

Donald Zink, Ph.D, senior science advisor at FDA’s Center for 

Food Safety and Applied Nutrition 

(CFSAN), explains that arsenic is 

present in the environment as a 

naturally occurring substance or 

as a result of contamination from 

human activity. It is found in water, 

air, food, and soil in organic and inorganic forms.

As a result, small amounts of arsenic can be found in certain food and 

beverage products—including fruit 

juices and juice concentrates.

“As a parent and grandparent 

myself, I understand the concern 

over recent reports that arsenic has 

been found in apple juice,” says Zink.

But, he says, there is no evidence of 

any public health risk from drinking 

these juices, Zink says. And FDA has 

been testing them for years.

Hunting Inorganic Arsenic

Organic arsenic is essentially 

harmless, according to Zink, but 

the inorganic kind can be harmful at high and long-term levels of 

exposure. 

FDA has been tracking total arsenic contamination in apple and 

other juices for about six 

years, since foreign producers started gaining an 

increasing share of the juice 

market, says Henry Kim, 

Ph.D., a supervisory chemist 

at CFSAN. 

The agency searches for potential 

contaminants in fruit juices and 

fruit juice concentrate in three ways:

• FDA issues import alerts to keep 

potentially dangerous products 

from other countries out of the 

U.S. marketplace. The agency has 

issued a specific alert that requires 

importers to prove their fruit 

juices and concentrates are safe 

for consumption before they are 

allowed to enter the U.S.

• As part of the FDA Total Diet Study 

program, the agency annually tests 

baby foods and apple juice samples 
2 / FDA Consumer Health Information / U.S. Food and Drug Administration SEPTEMBER 2011

Consumer Health Information

www.fda.gov/consumer

for the presence of arsenic.

• The agency collects and tests food 

and beverage samples in another 

program that looks for harmful 

substances in foods. Apple juice 

is one of the targeted products 

because investigators want to 

check for total and, if necessary, 

inorganic arsenic.

Levels Set for Water

Why hasn’t FDA defined the point 

at which arsenic levels are unsafe in 

apple juice when such levels have 

been established for public drinking 

water and bottled water?

The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) has set the arsenic standard for public drinking water at 10 

parts per billion (ppb) to protect consumers from the effects of long-term 

exposure to arsenic, which could 

include skin damage, circulatory problems and an increased risk of cancer. 

In concurrence with EPA, FDA has 

also set the arsenic standard at 10 ppb 

in bottled water. 

So why not set safe levels for arsenic 

in apple juice?

There is clear evidence that inorganic arsenic is a public health problem in some water supplies, and this 

is why the EPA has established a 

drinking water standard. FDA’s position is that similar evidence of a risk 

to public health does not exist for 

apple juice. Unlike drinking water, 

the levels routinely found in apple 

juice are either not detectable or 

occur at very low levels.

FDA will continue to test juices 

and juice concentrate and evaluate 

data provided by industry, consumer 

groups and government agencies, as 

well as data published in scientific literature. If the agency finds too much 

inorganic arsenic in any juice, it will 

take steps to remove that product 

from the market, says Zink. 

Find this and other Consumer 

Updates at www.fda.gov/

ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates

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subscriptions at www.fda.gov/

consumer/consumerenews.html

“There is no evidence of any public health 

risk from drinking these juices. And FDA 

has been testing them for years.”