It shouldn’t be a surprise but, of course, it still needs to be reported. The kid’s cereals and other packaged marketed to children still contain alarming amounts of glyphosate, the cancer-causing ingredient in Roundup, the herbicide produced by Bayer-Monsanto. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) detected the carcinogen in all 21 oat-based cereal and snack products sampled in their latest testing.
Nearly two dozen popular children’s cereals and other snack products tested and show to contain glyphosate.
Organic oats were not exempt from glyphosate contamination either.
EWG noted that only four products “contained levels of glyphosate higher than what EWG scientists consider protective for children’s health with a sufficient margin of safety.”
The new tests were performed by independent laboratories and they confirm the findings from EWG’s testing in July and October of last year. Honey Nut Cheerios and Medley Crunch showed the two highest levels of glyphosate at between 729 and 833 parts per billion. The EWG “children’s health benchmark” is 160 ppb.
EWG-commissioned independent laboratory tests of oat-based products found glyphosate present in 95 percent of samples made with conventionally grown oats and 31 percent of samples made with organic oats. Conventional products had much higher glyphosate levels than their organic counterparts.
It is common practice for conventional oats to be sprayed with glyphosate prior to harvest, as a desiccant that kills all crops uniformly. Organic oats are not treated that way, but may become contaminated by glyphosate drifting from nearby conventional crops.
How Does EWG Set a ‘Health Benchmark’ for Glyphosate Exposure?
Related: Foods Most Likely to Contain Glyphosate
Products testing positive include:
- Honey Nut Cheerios (147 ppb)
- Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal (729 ppb)
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios (400ppb)
- Cheerios Oat Crunch Cinnamon (283 ppb)
- Honey Nut Cheerios Medley Crunch (833 ppb)
- Multi Grain Cheerios (216 ppb)
- Nature Valley Baked Oat Bites (389 ppb)
- Nature Valley Granola Peanut Butter Creamy & Crunchy (198 ppb)
- Nature Valley Granola Protein Oats n Dark Chocolate (261 ppb)
- Nature Valley Fruit & Nut Chewy Trail Mix Granola Bars, Dark Chocolate & Nut (76 ppb)
- Nature Valley Fruit & Nut Chewy Trail Mix Granola Bars – Dark Chocolate Cherry (275 ppb)
- Nature Valley Sweet & Salty Nut granola bars – Cashew (158 ppb)
- Nature Valley Crunchy granola bars – Oats and Honey (320 ppb)
- Nature Valley Crunchy granola bars – Peanut Butter (312 ppb)
- Nature Valley Crunchy granola bars – Maple Brown Sugar (566 ppb)
- Nature Valley Soft-Baked Oatmeal Squares – Blueberry (206
ppb) - Nature Valley Soft-Baked Oatmeal Squares – Cinnamon Brown Sugar (124 ppb)
- Nature Valley Granola Cups – Almond Butter (529 ppb)
- Nature Valley Granola Cups – Peanut Butter Chocolate (297 ppb)
- Nature Valley Biscuits with Almond Butter (194 ppb)
- Fiber One Oatmeal Raisin soft-baked cookies (204 ppb).
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EWG purchased products via online retail sites. Approximately 300 grams of each product were packed in our Washington, D.C., office and shipped to Anresco Laboratories in San Francisco. Glyphosate levels were analyzed by a liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method described here.
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