Protecting families from contaminated food and water
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Protecting families from contaminated food and water
Posted in Food Policy,Our Blog on July 22, 2025
After many years of consumer advocacy groups pushing, and regulatory stalling, the FDA will soon set a standard for opiate contamination in poppy seed regulation.
A huge win for consumer advocates.
Draft guidance for setting maximum opiate levels recently moved to the next step. According to reports, the document that will govern this level will be either published in “drafts” or “finals” by the end of 2025.
According to a new release, “It is the purpose of this Act to establish levels for contamination of poppy seeds by morphine, by codeine, and by other illicit compounds, after which poppy seeds shall be considered adulterated substances that are prohibited in interstate commerce.”
Something that has been promised since advocates have been pushing for a bill in honor of Stephen Hacala Jr. A 24-year-old Arkansas resident who tragically died from morphine intoxication in September 2016. Hacala consumed contaminated poppy seeds that were sold directly to the consumer.
This heartbreaking situation is just one of many that other families have experienced due to this, as of yet, unregulated product.
At least 19 people in the United States have died from similar morphine overdoses from contaminated poppy seeds. Another 20 documented non-lethal overdoses have also occurred. This number is likely much higher.
The contaminated poppy seeds in question are not related to those you find in common food products. Those tiny black specs adorning bagels, mixed in muffins, and many other baked goods are not likely to contain opiates.
The subject of this regulation involves unwashed poppy seeds often sold online for medicinal applications.
You see, the seed pods of the poppy flowers contain certain compounds you may not readily attribute to a floral arrangement. Morphine and codeine, for example. In fact, pharmaceutical manufacturers use these same plants to make the opioid medications we use after surgery or other pain relief.
These compounds are found in the milky white substance on the poopy seed pods.
To make culinary poppy seeds, the pods are dried out and seeds are removed.
To manufacture opioid-based medications, an “industrial poppy straw process” is used to extract those therapeutic alkaloids from the mature dried pod. But this takes place in an industry that is highly regulated.
The real problem comes when this “natural medicine” is made in unregulated facilities.
Selling poppy seed pods is not illegal. It is a flower after all.
The problem comes when harvesters purposefully manipulate those opium pods to increase the opioid strength in the seeds.
How do they do this?
Prior to seed pods ripening, they make cuts in them. This allows the opium alkaloid-rich latex to seep into the seed coats. Infusing them with those compounds.
These are sold as “unwashed poppy seeds.”
When made into a tea, the hot water washes those alkaloid compounds into the beverage, producing psychoactive effects in the consumer. The amount of opioids in a tea is unpredictable and can lead to an overdose. Even death.
The United States has been dragging its feet, only to later follow on the path of European authorities when it comes to our food supply. We’ve banned certain pesticides decades after they were banned in other countries. Recently, synthetic dyes have been given an order to phase out. We are now, finally, addressing opiate contamination in poppy seeds.
What will the likely level be set to in the upcoming poppy seed regulation document?
If we continue to follow the European lead, this regulation will set the action level to 20 milligrams per kilogram.
In January 2025, the FDA published a document outlining information they obtained when researching this subject.
Additionally, the agency conducted surveillance sampling and tested 21 samples purchased online.
Morphine levels between 1 milligram per kilogram (mg/kg) and 520 mg/kg were observed. Codeine levels between 0.8 mg/kg and 255 mg/kg were found.
Even the averages of these samples are well above the expected 20 mg/kg to be set in December.
According to the Mayo Clinic, the effects of consuming poppy seed tea are dependent on “how much of the pod coating is left on the seeds, how many seeds are used, how the tea is prepared, and how much is consumed.”
Those are a lot of variables.
The effects of this tea can start within 15 minutes and last up to 24 hours.
Common symptoms of opioid overdose from poppy seed tea may include:
Get help right away or call an ambulance if you notice these symptoms on a loved one.
Now for the big question. Will this legislation actually happen? It has been pushed aside for many years so far with little movement. So the question isn’t just pessimistic commentary. Also, a disclosure was published alongside this and other topics on the current docket.
“We currently intend to develop guidance on each topic; however the FDA’s Human Foods Program is neither bound by this list of topics, nor required to issue every guidance document on the list.”
The agency cites certain factors such as new Administration priorities, more emerging public health issues, and “other extenuating circumstances.”
Make Food Safe continues to follow this poppy seed regulation activity and will report new information.
If you’d like to know more about food safety topics in the news, like “FDA Will Soon Set a Standard for Opiate Contamination in New Poppy Seed Regulation,” check out the Make Food Safe Blog. We regularly update trending topics, foodborne infections in the news, recalls, and more! Stay tuned for quality information to help keep your family safe, while The Lange Law Firm, PLLC strives to Make Food Safe!
By: Heather Van Tassell (contributing writer, non-lawyer)