Lead Safe Mama Lab Testing: Siete Salt & Vinegar PotatoChips

Published: Thursday - July 11, 2024

(at about 1 a.m. PST)

Lead Safe Mama, LLC's Food Testing Project

Food Testing Fundraising Campaign For: Siete Family Foods Sea Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips

BATCH 5 of Lead Safe Mama Laboratory Food Testing in 2024

Anticipated date for the test results for this product to be published: August/September 2024 (depending on when this campaign funds).

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Hello! This is a fundraiser by Tamara Rubin - owner of Lead Safe Mama, LLC, a unique community-collaborative small business for childhood Lead-poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety. We are crowd-sourcing funds to conduct independent laboratory testing of specific food products for metallic toxicants – products that people in the greater Lead Safe Mama online community have asked us to test.

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When we raise enough to test this specific product, we will buy the product and send the product to the laboratory for testing (using one of these test kits: https://amzn.to/45sPIPf ). We will then publish the test results on the Lead Safe Mama website - http://www.LeadSafeMama.com shortly after the lab notifies us that the results are ready.

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This is a GoFundMe campaign to test this exact product: Siete Family Foods Sea Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips. The product can be seen "in the wild" on this link (aflink): https://amzn.to/3xJ8yFA

We have chosen to test this product in response to many requests from members of the Lead Safe Mama online community. They are interested in comparing this to the other chips we have tested from this brand as well as other salt & vinegar chips we have tested from other brands. The hope is that this will test better than chips made with seed oils, given this product is made with Avocado Oil.

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You can find the laboratory test results (and related narrative discussions) for the other food products we have tested to date on this link: https://bit.ly/4bRZ61j

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We are crowd-sourcing the costs of this laboratory testing because most people who may be interested in testing a specific food item cannot afford to cover the full cost of the relatively expensive laboratory testing (https://amzn.to/45sPIPf ) - which includes testing [down to single-digits parts per BILLION for Lead and other metals] necessary to accurately evaluate toxicant concerns with any food item — but these same people may be able to contribute $5 or $10 towards the cost. In this way, we (together - as a community) will be able to test more of the food items that Lead Safe Mama Community Members have requested that we test!

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You can see a spreadsheet listing all of the products we have tested and reported on (and all testing that is currently in progress or for which we are raising funds) on this link: https://tamararubin.com/2024/06/food-testing-fundraising-campaigns-update-june-21-2024-batch-3-of-lead-safe-mama-llc-food-testing/ - all of our active, not-yet-funded GoFundMe campaigns for food testing are also pinned to the top of this link.

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For each of the laboratory food tests we are coordinating, we are specifically testing foods for the following metals:

1. Lead (Pb) - low threshold of detection: 1.5 ppb

2. Cadmium (Cd) - low threshold of detection: 3 ppb

3. Mercury (Hg) - low threshold of detection: 1.5 ppb

4. Arsenic (As) - low threshold of detection: 6 ppb

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You can read more about testing your own food yourself, instead of participating in this collaborative testing with Lead Safe Mama, LLC on this link: https://bit.ly/3VEtE0N

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By crowd-sourcing the funding for the laboratory testing of these products, we are keeping the product testing truly independent — un-influenced by any corporate interests [or any other parties that might have any relationship to or interest in the specific product (or product category), or the interests of food industry producers, manufacturers, marketers, etc.]

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• Our average contribution for these crowdfunded food-testing campaigns is about $15.00.

• The top contribution on the GoFundMe platform has been $75

— off of the platform the top contribution in support of food testing has been $300.

• The minimum contribution on GoFundMe is $5.00

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By coordinating this testing through Lead Safe Mama, LLC (vs. individual consumers paying for their own tests), when we publish the test results on our website, this lends the credibility of our organization to the test results, which (in turn) makes it more likely that the company may take action in response to the testing we are doing (especially since we are publishing these test results publicly / not behind a paywall, to make the information freely available to consumers & journalists - anyone interested in this information). We also assume any liability (should any company attempt to push back against the scientific findings that we publish).

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We are also crowd-sourcing the funding for all of this testing because that is the simplest way to determine which products Lead Safe Mama community members are interested in having tested (if the crowd funding for this product is successful, then there is definite community interest in these test results!)

• The campaigns will remain active until the funding goal for each campaign has been reached.

• Once the product has been tested, the test results will be published here (on the related GoFundMe campaign) and also on the Lead Safe Mama website and Lead Safe Mama Instagram page and Facebook page.

Instagram: http://www.Instagram.com/LeadSafeMama

Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/LeadSafeMama

Website: http://www.LeadSafeMama.com

The crowd-funded testing we are doing each month is in addition to the testing of 8 food items per month (through July of 2024) that is being donated to the Lead Safe Mama community by the testing company we use - SimpleLab!

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Supporting Information:

1.) Here's a link to a brief (ad-free) article that discusses the intention behind the food testing we are doing: https://bit.ly/3VEtE0N

2.) This link has a (ad-free) landing page on the Lead Safe Mama website of all of the food testing we have done so far (we have tested - and published results for testing of - 17 food items as of the time of publishing this GoFundMe): https://bit.ly/4bRZ61j

3.) This link is to a very detailed (ad-free) overview article discussing the first batch of six food products that were tested by Lead Safe Mama, LLC (new testing we are doing starting this year - in 2024). This article also explains why Lead Safe Mama, LLC has started doing food testing in response to some of the one-on-one work with families that we have done over the past (nearly) two decades(!): https://bit.ly/3yYcD8S

4.) This is a link to our (ad-free) article (published in 2023) which discusses a case study of a family we worked with who unknowingly was consuming a high-Lead diet (as a result of a combination of dietary recommendations made by a healthcare professional who did not realize that their recommendations were all foods that typically have unsafe levels of Lead): https://bit.ly/4bXYabV

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All Lead Safe Mama, LLC food testing is being done through SimpleLab - a laboratory network that does independent (third-party) testing. Here's a link to purchase one of their food testing kits if you are interested in testing your own food items separate from the food testing we are coordinating: https://amzn.to/45sPIPf

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For each of these laboratory tests of a single food product the budget is as follows:

• $195.00 - cost of laboratory testing for one specific food item. Here's an amazon link to the food test kit we are using: https://amzn.to/45sPIPf

• $50.00 - Average cost of purchasing the product to be tested (+ shipping if necessary). In each case we will be purchasing the item directly from a grocery store, Amazon, or the manufacturer (if they sell direct-to-consumer). Some specialty items (like vitamins and supplements) may cost significantly more (to have enough of the product to send to the lab for testing), others will cost less. In most cases, we purchase more than a single package of the product so we retain some as "evidence" should the company challenge our findings. [With some of the specialty food products we are testing, they are only sold by the case - which also impacts this "average" cost.]

• $35 - Fees (GoFundMe fees and other fees. Note: fees are higher than we anticipated in our first five campaigns)

• $170 - $215 - Admin Assistance / Editing & Publishing of test results reported on LeadSafeMama.com (including graphics creation & social media support and other assistance in coordinating these campaigns & responding to related questions).

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Total Anticipated Cost Range Per Product Tested:

$450.00 to $495.00 - If this campaign raises more than $495.00, any overages will be applied towards testing another food product (and we will note which food product those overages will be used for in an update on this GoFundMe).

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Please Note:

1.) Lead Safe Mama, LLC is NOT a non-profit, so contributions are not tax-deductible. All funds raised are accounted for as income to Lead Safe Mama, LLC, and all expenses related to this testing are accounted for as special project expenses for Lead Safe Mama, LLC.

2.) I (Tamara Rubin) am not including a line item to cover my time in the budget for this food testing. I am volunteering my time for coordinating this testing and for writing about the test results that we uncover. The line item for Admin costs includes funds to help cover the time of Lead Safe Mama, LLC's four current part-time helpers: Carissa, Katie, AJ and Ainslie.

3.) We will be posting specific fundraisers for different foods so that members of our greater community can "vote with their pocket book" as to which food products they would like tested.

4.) Amazon links are Lead Safe Mama, LLC affiliate links . We are sharing the link to the food product (as seen on Amazon) so you can see the exact product we are planning on testing with the funds raised from this campaign. If you purchase something on Amazon after clicking a Lead Safe Mama, LLC affiliate link - we may receive a percentage of what you spend (at no extra cost to you). Providing an affiliate link here helps us to raise funds in support of this work and should not be seen as an endorsement of any product that we intend to test with the funds raised via this GoFundMe.

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To see Lead Safe Mama, LLC's GoFundMe campaign set up for contributions to our general activities costs - including our legal defense fund (to help cover the costs of legal expenses when companies or other entities choose to challenge our work), please check out this link : https://gofund.me/ffdc4a8e. We currently have about $271,500 in debts we are working to pay off (related to costs incurred directly or indirectly as a result of legal challenges against our work).

Thank you!