Of the products that were tested, a range of whole wheat breads contained the highest levels, alongside chickpeas and Quaker Oats. The worst offending products were found in Hy-Vee, Whole Foods Market and Walmart, with the products with the lowest levels being found in natural grocers.
Where Is The Glyphosate Coming From And Why Is It In Non-Gmo Labeled Foods?
This report shows the damning reality that preharvest spraying (desiccation), an off-label use of glyphosate-based weedkillers, is leading to the mass contamination of essential foods that form the base of our diet.Are The Levels Of Glyphosate Discovered In Essential Foods Safe?
It is first important to understand how the “safe” level of any toxic chemical is set. Currently the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets a reference dose (RfD), which is known as the acceptable daily intake (ADI) in Europe, by taking the lowest no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) from animal studies and dividing it by 100.The big problem is that both the RfD in the U.S. (1.75 mg/kg bw/day) and the ADI in the EU (0.3 mg/kg bw/day) for glyphosate have already been proven to be far too high by independent peer-reviewed studies.
In the pilot phase of the most comprehensive study ever performed on glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides — the Global Glyphosate Study — it was shown that glyphosate-based herbicides cause genotoxicity, alteration of the intestinal microbiome as well as reproductive and developmental effects in both male and female rats, at the U.S RfD level.
Other peer-reviewed studies have also shown changes in gene function and DNA damage at the U.S. RfD level.
This would normally mean that the EPA’s current RfD safe level should be reduced by at least 100x. However, even that may not be enough of a reduction, as in smaller non-comprehensive peer-reviewed studies, levels that are lower than 0.1 mg/kg have been shown to cause serious kidney and liver damage in rats.
How was the Testing Performed?
This testing project was performed in exactly the same way as government regulators occasionally perform checks for pesticides in off-the-shelf food products — a selection of different essential foods, including bread, grains, pulses (lentils, beans, peas and chickpeas) and protein bars and shakes were purchased from top grocery stores and sent directly to an expert ISO 17025 certified third-party laboratory in California.They were then tested using gold standard mass spectrometry methods (LC-MS/MS).
The number of samples and the wide selection of essential food types tested make this the most comprehensive single glyphosate testing project ever performed in the U.S.
Similar smaller projects on specific areas of the food supply have previously shown glyphosate contamination in cereals, hummus and protein supplements, with some of the results having been reported in the New York Times.
The latest testing project was funded by the Rose Foundation, based in California, which supports projects that protect and support nature, human rights and environmental justice.
