Is Shilajit Safe? The Heavy Metals Question

A routine laboratory report cannot establish that mumijo, also called shilajit, contains absolutely no heavy metals. Purified material can still contain measurable metals. Read the sample identity, results, detection limits and link to the batch you are buying. Our available supplier report concerns a resin sample from February 2026; it does not automatically verify every jar sold today or any capsule formula.

What the published analyses show

Published laboratory studies have detected metals in the commercial shilajit samples they analysed. Results describe those samples and methods, not every product on the market or our current batches. A two-sample study is not a market survey.

The 2025 thallium study found higher concentrations in some supplements than in the natural samples it tested. This comparison alone does not establish whether processing introduced or concentrated the metal. It supports asking what was tested and how the report connects to the product you are buying.

What purification does and does not do

The traditional process is shodhana. The raw material is dissolved in water, sometimes with herbal decoctions, the rock, sand and plant debris that do not dissolve are filtered out, and the clear liquid is slowly reduced, traditionally in the sun and now at low heat, back to a resin. A modern producer does the same thing with filter grades and controlled temperatures. Done properly, it removes the insoluble matter, which is where a large part of the grit and a portion of the mineral load sits.

It does not remove what dissolves. Metals bound to the small organic molecules that make shilajit what it is travel with them through the filter. The 2026 ICP-MS study found most metals in shilajit associated with low molecular weight complexes, which is to say the fraction that dissolves and stays. Purification is necessary. It is not sufficient, and a jar that says “purified” and shows no test result has told you half of what you need to know.

Modern practice adds the second half: the finished batch is sent to a laboratory, each metal is measured, and the result is written down with a batch reference. Everything below is about reading that document.

The EU maximum levels, from the regulation itself

Shilajit is sold in the EU as a food supplement, and the contaminants regulation for food is Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915 of 25 April 2023, which replaced Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006. Article 9 states plainly that “Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 is repealed”, so anyone still quoting the 2006 numbers is quoting a document that no longer applies, even though for these three metals the figures carried across unchanged. Annex I of the 2023 regulation sets these maximum levels for food supplements:

Contaminant	Annex I point	Maximum level in food supplements
Lead	3.1.28	3.0 mg/kg
Cadmium	3.2.21.1	1.0 mg/kg
Cadmium, supplements at least 80 per cent dried seaweed, seaweed products or dried bivalve molluscs	3.2.21.2	3.0 mg/kg
Mercury	3.3.2	0.10 mg/kg
Inorganic arsenic	3.4	no general food-supplement entry; other product-specific categories apply

The higher cadmium limit applies only when the stated composition criteria are met, not to every capsule containing seaweed. The absence of a listed maximum for a substance does not establish safety or remove general food-safety obligations. This table describes EU categories, not a ruling for every European country. Regulation (EU) 2025/1891 also added inorganic-arsenic limits for fish and other seafood.

One real certificate, compared line by line

The example below is the supplier report dated 9 February 2026, certificate 63849, reference LS1157. It identifies the sample as Shilajit Resin and lists ICP-MS for metals. These are figures reported in that document. Its connection to current retail batches and the scope of accreditation have not been independently confirmed here.

Metal	Certificate result	EU maximum for food supplements	Margin
Lead	0.44 mg/kg	3.0 mg/kg	about one seventh of the limit
Cadmium	below 0.2 mg/kg	1.0 mg/kg	at least five times under
Mercury	0.03 mg/kg	0.10 mg/kg	under a third of the limit
Arsenic	0.02 mg/kg	no EU limit for supplements	reported for completeness

The same document reports aflatoxins below 0.1 ppb, pesticides not detected, and microbiology within the USP <2021> and <2022> limits for dietary supplements, alongside the composition figures discussed in the definition article: 73.8 per cent fulvic acid, 14.7 per cent humic acid, 14.3 per cent moisture and 11.8 per cent ash.

Lead at 0.44 mg/kg is not zero. Cadmium is reported as below 0.2 mg/kg, while the document lists a detection limit of 0.05 mg/kg. These are different statements. Arsenic is reported at 0.02 mg/kg with a stated detection limit of 0.1 mg/kg: the result is below the printed detection limit. The issuing laboratory needs to clarify this discrepancy; until then we do not treat that figure as a reliably quantified result.

Purified material can still contain measurable metals. Read the sample identity, results, detection limits and link to the batch you are buying. Our available supplier report concerns a resin sample from February 2026; it does not automatically verify every jar sold today or any capsule formula.

What a proper lab report has to say

A certificate of analysis is only useful if it is specific. Before you trust one, look for every item on this list.

1. Each metal named, with a measured value. Lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic at minimum. “Heavy metals: pass” is not a result. “Lead: 0.44 mg/kg” is.
2. A detection or reporting limit. “Not detected” means nothing without the limit at which the method stops seeing. Below 0.2 mg/kg and below 0.002 mg/kg are very different claims.
3. The method. ICP-MS is the standard for trace metals. A certificate that names no method is a certificate that could have been typed by anyone.
4. A batch or lot reference that matches the jar. This is the item most often missing. A report without one describes some shilajit, somewhere, once.
5. The laboratory’s name and accreditation. ISO 17025 is the international standard for testing laboratories. A named, accredited third party is the difference between a test and a claim.
6. A date, and a sensible one. Resin is stable, but a certificate older than the batch it supposedly covers is not covering it.
7. The limits it is compared against. A good report states the reference, whether that is Regulation (EU) 2023/915, a pharmacopoeia or the laboratory’s own specification, so you know what “pass” means.

If a seller cannot or will not send this document, that is your answer. A purification story, a mountain range and the words “lab tested” without the PDF are marketing. The rest of the buying checklist, including the things you can check on the jar itself, is in how to spot real shilajit, and the European sellers who publish reports are the subject of where to buy shilajit in Europe.

Why the limits are not zero, and what a margin means

A result below a detection or reporting limit does not establish an absolute absence. Compare concentrations, units, methods and reporting limits. One low result does not, by itself, demonstrate how well purification worked or describe future batches.

What a daily dose actually delivers

Illustration, not a dosage recommendation: 300 mg of material containing lead at 0.44 mg/kg would contain 0.132 micrograms of lead. The calculation uses the reported sample concentration; it does not establish a safe intake or the composition of a current jar.

Reporting bounds of 0.2 and 0.01 mg/kg differ by a factor of twenty. That does not mean twenty times greater measurement accuracy or prove that one sample contains twenty times less cadmium.

If your jar came without a certificate

Ask the seller for the report and its link to the lot number on the jar. Without that connection, the supplied document does not verify your particular batch. A missing document is not, by itself, proof that testing never occurred.

Do not try to test it yourself with a flame or a water test; those checks, covered in how to spot real shilajit, can tell you whether a resin is resin, and nothing about metals. Metals are measured by a spectrometer or not at all.

Who should still not take it

A laboratory report covers the named sample and the substances tested. It cannot establish overall product safety or suitability for an individual. Batch traceability, composition, label instructions and personal medical circumstances also matter.

Iron-overload conditions. Shilajit is iron-bearing, and iron is not a contaminant in this material, it is a constituent. In a 91 day rat study in the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine, liver iron was raised in the group given 5,000 mg/kg, the highest dose. The NHS describes haemochromatosis as an inherited condition in which iron builds up over many years and can damage the liver, joints, pancreas and heart. Anyone with haemochromatosis or another iron-overload diagnosis should not take shilajit, however clean the batch.

Pregnancy and breastfeeding. No trial has recruited pregnant women, and a published case report links six months of mumijo in pregnancy to a licorice-like syndrome. Avoid.

Children. Not tested. Not for them.

Prescribed medication. No interaction studies exist. Ask a doctor or pharmacist first.

Shilajit is not authorised for any health claim in the EU, and nothing on this page should be read as suggesting it acts on any condition. Its side effects in trials, mostly mild digestive complaints, and the case reports that exist are in shilajit side effects.

The short version

The available February 2026 report concerns a supplier resin sample, not every current jar or capsule formula. Its arsenic value is below the printed detection limit and needs laboratory clarification. Neither a purification claim nor this report supports a promise of zero heavy metals.

Further reading: how to take it. And if you want to know what the fulvic and humic percentages on the same certificate mean, what is fulvic acid is where that is explained.