Consumer Safety Research Center
Independent testing. Corporate accountability. Safer products.
CSRC is an independent California nonprofit research organization. We purchase everyday consumer products off the shelf, test them at ISO/IEC 17025-accredited laboratories for lead, heavy metals, and hazardous chemicals — and when the law is broken, we enforce it.
An independent nonprofit laboratory-testing initiative
Long Beach, California
01 — Why we exist
Heavy metals concentrate in processed plant material — cocoa, greens, root crops — and arrive unlabeled in protein powders, supplements, and foods marketed as healthy. Federal limits are fragmentary. Enforcement is slow.
California's Proposition 65 gives the public a tool: companies must warn consumers about significant exposures to listed chemicals — and private citizens can enforce that duty when regulators don't. CSRC exists to use that tool, rigorously and in the open.
02 — Method
01
High-risk ingredients, large serving sizes, high sales volume, no existing warning. Selection criteria are published — not ad hoc.
02
Bought at retail like any consumer would, with the full order record preserved as chain-of-custody evidence.
03
ISO/IEC 17025-accredited laboratory analysis by ICP-MS under validated AOAC methods. We use the same labs industry uses.
04
Exposure per labeled serving computed against California's published safe-harbor levels — the state's own math.
05
A credentialed quality/regulatory expert reviews the data and signs an attestation supporting a certificate of merit.
06
A statutory 60-day notice is served on the violator and public prosecutors. Outcomes we pursue: reformulation, warnings, penalties.
Methods: AOAC 2011.19 / 993.14 / 2015.01 (mod.) · ICP-MS
Standard: Cal. Health & Safety Code § 25249.5 et seq. (Proposition 65)
Safe harbor reference: lead MADL 0.5 µg/day
03 — First finding
154%
0.772 µg
lead measured per labeled serving,
ICP-MS, accredited laboratory
0.5 µg/day
California maximum allowable
dose level (MADL) for lead
The product carried no Proposition 65 warning. Enforcement is in preparation; the full certificate of analysis, exposure calculation, and expert attestation will be published here when the statutory notice is served. That is the standard for everything we release: the document trail, not just the headline.
04 — Transparency
| Commitment | What we publish |
|---|---|
| Accredited data only | Every claim traces to an ISO/IEC 17025 lab certificate of analysis, published in full. |
| Open methodology | Selection criteria, test methods, and exposure math — disclosed with every finding. |
| Documented custody | Retail purchase records from order to lab receipt, preserved and produced. |
| Public accountability | Every 60-day notice is filed with the Attorney General and public prosecutors — a public record by design. |
| Public record | Reference |
|---|---|
| Corporate entity | California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation № 6408936, filed October 2, 2024 |
| Federal EIN | 33-1317625 |
| Statutory basis | Cal. Health & Safety Code § 25249.5 et seq. |
| Governance | Bylaws, conflict-of-interest policy, and board roster available on request. |
Where settlements fund our work, that funding and its statutory basis are disclosed. Civil penalties under Proposition 65 are allocated by law — 75% to the State of California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.
05 — Act
Accredited laboratory testing is expensive — that's why so little of it happens outside industry. Your support pays for sample purchases, ICP-MS panels, and the legal work that turns data into safer products.
CSRC is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation. Our application for federal 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status is in progress; contributions are not tax-deductible at this time. We will say so plainly here the day that changes.
Contact us to contributeTest results and safety alerts, published as they clear review. No noise.