The anti-GMO advocacy group Food Democracy Now! and its Detox Project hired a laboratory to test 29 popular foods for residues of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup.
General Mills’ Cheerios had the highest amount of glyphosate, at 1,125.3 parts per billion (ppb). Cheerios are advertised as non-GMO, which means it does not contain genetically-modified ingredients.
However, non-GMO oats and wheat are occasionally sprayed with Roundup immediately before harvest, especially in upper Midwestern U.S. states where the growing season is shorter and wetter.
Non-GMO oats and wheat die and release their seeds when they are sprayed with Roundup. This can increase the yield per acre, control weeds, and allow a faster crop rotation, which are big advantages.
The disadvantage of soaking oats and wheat in Roundup just a few days before harvest is contamination with glyphosate. These contaminated grains are also mixed with non-contaminated grains in finished foods.
The good news is that the amount of glyphosate in Cheerios is much lower than what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers safe — 1.75 milligrams of glyphosate per kilogram of body weight per day.
That means a person who weighed 110 pounds would have to eat 130 boxes of Cheerios (12.5 oz) in one day to hit the limit.
The limit is much lower in the European Union — 0.3 mg/kg/day — but that would still be 22 boxes of Cheerios in one day. No one is going to eat that much, but exposures are higher for kids and people who eat other foods with glyphosate.
Source: Huffington Post