Weedkiller found in granola and crackers, internal FDA emails show
By Surya Zeeb
Published: June 6, 2018
Category: Pesticide Hazards, The Organic & Non-GMO Report Newsletter
Scientists with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have detected a weedkiller linked to cancer in a wide range of food products, according to emails obtained through a freedom of information request.
The FDA has been testing food samples for residues of glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup herbicide, for two years but has not yet released any official results.
But the internal documents obtained by The Guardian show the FDA has had trouble finding any food that does not carry traces of the pesticide.
“I have brought wheat crackers, granola cereal and corn meal from home and there’s a fair amount in all of them,” FDA chemist Richard Thompson wrote to colleagues in an email last year regarding glyphosate. Thompson, who is based in an FDA regional laboratory in Arkansas, wrote that broccoli was the only food he had “on hand” that he found to be glyphosate-free.
The FDA is charged with annually testing food samples for pesticide residues to monitor for illegally high residue levels. The fact that the agency only recently started testing for glyphosate, a chemical that has been used for over 40 years in food production, has led to criticism from consumer groups and the Government Accountability Office (GAO). An estimated 300 million pounds of glyphosate are used in the U.S. each year on major crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, and oats.
The FDA’s official findings should be released later this year or early in 2019 as part of its 2016 annual residue report.
Source: The Guardian
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