How Products were Selected:
Products selected represent those commonly sold and/or available in the U.S. ConsumerLab.com purchased products on the open market through retail stores, on-line retailers and/or multi-level marketing companies. Products were not accepted directly from manufacturers.
Testing Methods:
Coconut water products were tested in one or more independent laboratories for the following:
- Magnesium, potassium, and sodium using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS).
- Sugar content using AOAC (Association of Official Analytical Chemists, International).
- Lead, cadmium and arsenic using ICP-MS.
ConsumerLab.com may modify or use other appropriate test methods if necessary to test special product formulations.
Identities of the products were not disclosed to the laboratories performing the testing.
Passing Score:*
To be "Approved" by ConsumerLab.com, a product had to meet the following requirements:
- If made from natural coconut water (not concentrate), amounts of magnesium, potassium, sodium, and sugar must meet the FDA requirement that a food product contain within +/- 20% of the listed amount of any naturally occurring nutrient. If made from concentrate, must meet FDA requirement that product contain 100% and not more than 125% of the listed amounts of these nutrients.
-
Heavy metals: Products must not exceed the following limits:
Lead**:- Products marketed for use by children may not exceed the State of California's Prop 65 limits for lead in dietary supplements of 0.5 mcg per recommended daily serving with an additional allowance of 0.8 mcg if the product contains more than 1,000 mg/day of calcium.
- Products with single serving weights of less than 5 grams that are not marketed for use by children, may not exceed the State of California Prop 65 levels for lead in dietary supplements of 0.5 mcg per recommended daily serving with an additional allowance of 0.4 mcg if containing 250-999 mg/day of any combination of elemental calcium, magnesium and potassium or 0.8 mcg if containing more than 1,000 mg/day of any combination of these minerals. An additional allowance of 0.5 mcg is provided if containing 250 to 999 mg/day of whole herb (not extract) or 1.0 mcg if containing 1000 mg/day of whole herb (not extract). However total lead will not exceed 2 mcg per recommended daily serving.
- Products with single serving weights of 5 grams or more which are not marketed for children may not exceed 2.5 mcg per serving nor 4.0 mcg per daily serving.
- If marketed for use by children, may not exceed 3.0 micrograms of cadmium per recommended daily serving (based on Canada's limit for a child weighing 75 lbs.). If not marketed for use by children, may not exceed 4.1 micrograms of cadmium per recommended daily serving (based on the State of California's Prop 65 limit).
- Contain less than 10 micrograms of total arsenic and no more than 5 micrograms of inorganic arsenic per daily serving (EPA limit and state of New Jersey limits - based on 1 liter of water).
- Be in compliance with FDA labeling requirements.
* Passing scores allow for specific margins of technical error associated with each analysis. ConsumerLab.com reserves the right to disqualify a product at any time from passing its testing if it considers such product to display unacceptable variation in quality, present a safety risk or to provide misleading or inaccurate information in its labeling.
** Based on State of California's Prop 65 lead limit. California requires supplements exceeding this limit to bear a warning label regarding lead.
