Milling & Baking News - August 28, 2018 - 11

Nutrition and Health

Breakfast oats ensnared in
glyphosate safety controversy
KANSAS CITY - A long-standing
debate over the safety of the chemical
glyphosate was reignited earlier this
month after a study revealed residue
from the herbicide was found in 43 of
45 samples of breakfast foods made
with conventionally grown oats.
The Environmental Working Group
commissioned testing of more than a
dozen brands of oat-based foods using
a "no significant risk level" for glyphosate of 1.1 mg per day for an average
adult. That level - suggested by California's Office of Environmental Health
Hazard Assessment in conjunction
with listing glyphosate as a carcinogen
on the state's Proposition 65 list - represents a one-in-100,000 increased cancer risk over the lifetime of an adult. It
is more than 60 times lower than the
Environmental Protection Agency's
established safety level, but far higher
than the one-in-1-million lifetime increased risk level set for many cancercausing drinking water contaminants.
The E.W.G. said an additional 10fold margin of safety was supported
by the federal Food Quality Protection
Act due to the increased susceptibility
of children and fetuses to carcinogens.
The group also said the one-in-1-million
increased cancer risk can be reached by
ingesting 0.01 mg of glyphosate per
day, the amount contained in a single
60-gram serving of food with glyphosate levels of 160 parts per billion.
Three fourths of the 43 positive
samples contained glyphosate at levels above the 160 p.p.b. threshold for
protection of children's health with an
adequate margin of safety. Sixteen of
the samples were made with organically grown oats, and five of those contained glyphosate levels between 10
and 30 p.p.b., well below the E.W.G.'s
health threshold.
The highest levels seen in the
E.W.G.'s study were two samples of
Quaker Old Fashioned Oats, which
registered at 1,000 p.p.b. Three samples of General Mills' Cheerios brand
turned out glyphosate levels from 470
to 530 p.p.b. Twelve samples didn't
reach the E.W.G.'s benchmark, and
two contained no traces of glyphosate.
In response, Quaker and General
Mills each said their products are safe
and cited E.P.A. and European Food
Safety Authority safety rules and standards governing producers, suppliers,
millers and manufacturers.
"We continue to work closely with
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farmers, our suppliers and conservation
organizations to minimize the use of
pesticides on the crops and ingredients
we use in our foods," General Mills said.
"While our products comply with
all safety and regulatory requirements, we are happy to be part of the
discussion and are interested in collaborating with industry peers, regulators and other interested parties on
glyphosate," Quaker officials said.
The impetus for the study was a
Food and Drug Administration scientist's presentation at the 2016 North
American Chemical Residue Workshop, which showed glyphosate had

drying process for an earlier harvest.
The glyphosate debate has drawn allegations of faulty research, both for and
against the use of the chemical. In 2015,
glyphosate was called a "probable human carcinogen" by the World Health
Organization's International Agency for
Research on Cancer. That study has been
challenged, with critics alleging scientific
lapses and unsubstantiated findings.
The I.A.R.C. ruling has proven to be a
controversial outlier in research on the
pesticide. A study funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Agricultural Health Study,
found no firm link between exposure
to glyphosate and cancer.
Other contrary conclusions were
drawn by several other international

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been detected in several oat-based
food products since testing was implemented in 2016 in response to consumer concerns and activist outcries.
After a Freedom of Information Act request, the F.D.A. released documentation
revealing "a fair amount" of glyphosate
residue was found in several processed
foods. The F.D.A. said last week "the
results are being evaluated, and those
results will be included when the agency
releases the 2017 pesticide report," a process it noted could stretch to two years.
Monsanto, which merged with
Bayer A.G. this year, manufactures
glyphosate under the trade name
Roundup. It has been in use in the
United States for around 40 years and
is the most popular herbicide in the
United States.
Glyphosate often is used in conjunction with "Roundup Ready" corn
and soybeans genetically engineered
to thrive despite contact with the
herbicide, while killing weeds that
choke field crops and combines during harvests. In recent years, glyphosate has sometimes been applied to
genetically natural wheat, barley,
beans and oats just prior to harvest in
order to kill the crop and speed the

organizations, including the European
Food Safety Authority and the Joint
Food and Agriculture Organization/
World Health Organization Meeting on
Pesticide Residues. And in December,
the E.P.A. concluded "glyphosate is not
likely to be carcinogenic to humans."
Still, based on the I.A.R.C. determination, California added glyphosate
to its Safe Drinking Water and Toxic
Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition
65) list last year and began enforcing
labeling in July.
In mid-August, Bayer was ordered
by a judge to pay $289 million to a
former school groundskeeper whose
attorneys convinced a California jury
that the company's failure to warn
of the potential risks of repeated use
of pesticides was responsible for the
man's terminal case of non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma. Immediately following
the verdict, Bayer's stock lost more
than $14 billion in value, a morethan-10% drop. The company said the
jury's verdict remains subject to posttrial motions in the trial court and to
an appeal through which courts ultimately will find that Monsanto and
glyphosate were not responsible for
the groundskeeper's illness. MBN
Milling & Baking News

August 28, 2018 / 11

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Milling & Baking News - August 28, 2018

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