Lead in Candy or Candy Wrappers?...
With Halloween fast approaching, I thought it might be a good time to bring up the possibility of lead in candy or candy wrappers. When I was a little kid, Halloween was big with my family. My dad would invent cemeteries in our front yard with scary scenes of floating ghosts and an ax murderer bobbing the head of hiss victim while “blood” spurted from the decapitated body. This was before the time you could go down to the local box store and buy any and all of the above. 
Quite ironically, as much fun as my dad would have creating his automated concoctions, he would feel terrible if it scared away little kids. He would go running after the crying tot with a bowlful of candy.
All kids had to worry about in my neighborhood was getting egged or toilet papered. I’m happy to report, neither happened to me. My parents insisted on checking our candy before we ate any. Any unwrapped candy got thrown out. As a kid, it took great restraint to wait to eat any candy until we got home.
From 2005 through 2007, there has been scare with some candy imported from Mexico. Certain candy ingredients such as chili powder and lemon may be a source of lead exposure. Lead sometimes gets into the candy when processes such as drying, storing, and grinding the ingredients are done improperly. It has also been found in candy glazes, which may have initially been contaminated from worn lead glazes in 
ceramics where the candy coatings were stored. Also, lead has been found in some wrappers of imported candies. The ink on these wrappers may contain lead that can leach into the candy. You cannot tell by looking at or tasting a candy whether it contains lead.
Now, please don’t go throwing out your kids Snickers or Hershey’s bar. This was found in imports from Mexico. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has set guidelines in place . Lead levels in candy products are not to exceed 0.1 ppm. This is because under good manufacturing practices, this is achievable. How much is 0.1 ppm? One part per million (1 ppm) is roughly equal to 2 drops of food coloring being dropped into a 50 gallon tank; or the equivalent of a penny being divided into a million pieces. One of those pieces is a part (1) per million (ppm.) Divide that one piece into ten more pieces. One of those pieces equals 0.1 ppm.
It should also be noted that the FDA does NOT permit lead-based inks on any part of a any food wrapper, including candy. This also includes the exterior of the wrapper.
Happy Halloween!
References:
www.cfsan.fda.gov
www.cdc.gov
