The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will this year begin testing some food products for residues of glyphosate—the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup—the agency told reporters last week (via Civil Eats). Scientists have long debated the chemical’s link to cancers, among other things.
“The agency is now preparing plans for Fiscal Year 2016 to measure glyphosate in soybeans, corn, milk, and eggs, among other potential foods,” FDA spokesperson Lauren Sucher wrote in an email to Newsweek.
“If there is evidence of problems that keep coming up, and the chemical is in such widespread use, we need to study it,” Ana Soto of Tufts University School of Medicine told Science News. “That’s not revolutionary, that’s common sense.”
A spokesperson for Monsanto, which produces Roundup, responded to the FDA’s announcement in emails to Civil Eats and Newsweek. “No data have ever indicated residue levels [on food]...
Thumbnail image: FLICKR, MIKE MOZART
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