The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA), the nation’s chief food safety regulator, plans to start
testing certain foods for residues of the world’s most widely used weed killer,
Roundup (chemical name – glyphosate).
The FDA move comes after the U.S Government Accountability Office (GAO) pushed
for such an assessment, and rebuked the FDA for not disclosing its short-coming
to the public. The issue is
important because the world authority on cancer, the International
Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization (WHO)
declared the herbicide glyphosate ‘probably carcinogenic to humans’ in its
latest expert assessment.
FDA officials dubbed
the issue ‘sensitive’ and declined to provide many details of the plans, but
they do state that they are considering
assignments for Fiscal Year 2016 to measure glyphosate in soybeans, corn, milk,
and eggs, and other potential foods. Soybeans, sugar beets and corn are commonly
sprayed with glyphosate, the most commonly used agricultural herbicide.
Private companies,
academics, and consumer groups are also testing for glyphosate residues and have recently claimed to have
detected such residues in honey, cereal, wheat flour, soy sauce, infant
formula, breast milk and other substances.
Since over 90% of corn
and soy grown in the US is genetically modified to accept the spraying of Roundup, most packaged food contains
these GMO crops. Vermont
recently passed a law, effective July !st, 2016, to require labeling of foods
containing GMO products. However,
this law was opposed by the food industry and a majority of members of Congress. They countered with a bill, signed into
law by President Obama, which allowed food companies to use QR codes instead of
words on the package. A QR code is
an array of black and white squares that can be read by a smart phone, after
the application is downloaded. Clearly this revision of the Vermont law will make in unlikely
that most consumers will know whether there are genetically modified products –
generally from corn, soy and sugars - in their packaged foods. For many people looking for
transparency and the right to know, this is distressing.
Stay tuned, I will write more about this topic in future columns.
Sadja Greenwood, MD,MPH
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