Testing conducted by Générations Futures shows the presence of glyphosate in around fifteen common food products.
Glyphosate is everywhere. It garnishes the plates of the French, who consume it in the morning, for breakfast. The famous herbicide, a component of Monsanto’s Roundup, has been detected in around 15 consumer products, according to a study led by the NGO Générations Futures. From grains to chickpeas, the pesticide spares almost no food.
To achieve this, the NGO had 30 everyday consumer products analyzed – packets of lentils, split peas, pasta, rusks or even breakfast cereals. According to laboratory results, more than half of the products (53%, or 16 products) contain traces of the herbicide.
High rates
It is in cereals that we find the highest concentrations, according to the NGO, which cites the packets of Muesli Alpen Swiss, Weetabix Original, Muesli Jordan Country Crisp, Country Store Kellogg’s, Granola Oatmeal Jordans , All Bran Fruit’n Kellogg’s Fiber.
The herbicide was also found in lentils (Vivien Paille green lentils and Leader Price blond lentils) or in chickpeas (Saint Eloi chickpeas and Leader Price chickpeas).
If the rates, for the most part quite high (up to 2 micrograms / kg of food), cannot trigger acute intoxication, the association believes that this gradually contaminates the digestive tract and therefore the body …
European negotiations
Glyphosate has been classified as a “probable carcinogen” by the International Agency for Research against Cancer (IARC). Générations Futures’ analysis comes as the European Commission is preparing to relaunch a pesticide authorization procedure, which the new French government has just opposed.
A European petition aimed at banning glyphosate has been launched since February 8, 2017. For François Veillerette, director of Générations Futures, these results show that there is “an urgent need for the European Union to renounce the use of this molecule (…) and to radically change its agricultural model, which has become too dependent on synthetic pesticides ”.
.