Roundup Residue Found In Peanut Butter, Tea, Other Common Lunch Foods

Laboratory testing suggests that a number of popular foods Americans commonly take with them for lunch may include the presence of glyphosate, the active ingredient in the controversial weed killer Roundup, including peanut butter, green tea and sliced bread. 

The glyphoate laboratory testing was commissioned by the group Moms Across America, which advocates for more stringent labeling of foods that contain genetically modified organisms and pesticides. It comes amid ongoing concerns over the potential health risks of Roundup exposure, which has been linked to non-Hodgkins lymphoma and other cancers.

The group had Health Research Institute (HRI) Laboratories test a number of products commonly eaten by Americans at lunch, including various brands of conventional and organic almond milk, bread, green tea, veggie burgers and peanut butter. Many of them are advertised as being “100% natural.”

The testing looked for both glyphosate itself and aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA); which is what happens to glyphosate when it breaks down in the soil, and which many consider to be more toxic than glyphosate itself.

All of the products detected some level of glyphosate, though organic products tended to have less glyphosate residue or AMPA than their conventional counterparts. Only organic veggie burgers had no detectable level of AMPA.

The most glyphosate was found in Lipton Pure “100% Natural” Green Tea, with 189.96 mg/g and 12.27 mg/g of AMPA, for an effective glyphosate level of 208.29 mg/g. That was followed by conventional whole grain bread which had an effective glyphosate level of 140.98 mg/ml.

Over the last two years, a number of lawsuits have been filed against food manufacturers who labeled their products as either “All Natural” or “100% Natural” after they were found to contain traces of glyphosate or involved the use of GMOs.

The complaints allege that the presence of glyphosate or the use of genetically modified crops, often made specifically to handle heavy Roundup application, make the all natural claims misleading.

Concerns over the potential Roundup cancer risks have been the subject of global concerns since mid-2015, when the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) determined that glyphosate is likely a cancer-causing agent. The IARC specifically linked the Roundup to an increased risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Monsanto now faces a growing number of Roundup lawsuits filed throughout the United States, typically involving individuals diagnosed with a form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma following heavy exposure to the herbicide as a farm or agricultural worker. The complaints allege that the manufacturer recklessly promoted Roundup and pushed greater and greater use of the chemical, without disclosing the potential health risks.