Glyphosate in cereals: more chemical weedkillers in the Roundup than found in breakfast foods, including Quaker Oatmeal and Cheerios

Two months after release an alarming report on herbicides in cereals and other food products for children, an environmental advocacy group is back with additional findings. This time, the tests detected traces of glyphosate – the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup weed killer – in the approximately 30 cereal samples and oat-based snack bars tested.

All samples tested within the limits deemed acceptable by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration, and widespread disagreement about an acceptable amount of a chemical called "probable carcinogen" by the US Environmental Protection Agency. World Health Organization.

The latest tests from the Environmental Working Group, or EWG, have detected glyphosate in 28 samples of products made with conventionally grown oats. All of the samples, except for two of the 28, had glyphosate levels above the health reference value of their own working group, ie 160 parts per billion, or ppb.

Products tested included 10 samples of different types of General Mills Cheerios and 18 samples of different Quaker brand products, including instant oatmeal, breakfast cereals and snack bars. The highest level of glyphosate found by the lab was 2,837 ppb in Quaker breakfast cereals Oatmeal Squares, EWI said.

The results released on Wednesday follow the results of two months ago, in which the electronic working group had found glyphosate in 45 samples of conventional oat – based foods and in about one – third of 16 products based on organic oats.

The eWG recommends eliminating glyphosate in foods and its scientists recommend limiting the daily consumption of the chemical to 0.01 milligram. For a portion of 60 grams of food, this corresponds to a safety standard of 160 parts per billion, or ppb. The group stated that its benchmark, much stricter than that of government regulators, is based on exposure risks over the life course, claiming that "small, repeated exposures can add up if a person consumes foods containing glyphosate every day. "

Noting that most crops are grown in fields using some form of pesticides, "traces are found in the majority of the foods we all eat," General Mills said in an email to CBS MoneyWatch. "The extremely low levels of pesticide residues cited in recent reports are only a tiny fraction of the amount allowed by the government Consumers are regularly bombarded with alarming headlines, but rarely have time to weigh the information for themselves."

The eWG report uses the glyphosate level "which is separate from those set by responsible regulators for the purpose of making headlines," Quaker responded in an email. "Quaker products tested by EWG are safe," the company added.

EWG, however, rejects federal standards as being "often out of date" and "heavily influenced by industry lobbying".