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Should Floridians be worried about weed killer in their bread?
Florida first lady Casey DeSantis, who helps lead the state’s version of the Make America Healthy Again movement, recently said the Healthy Florida First initiative tested popular bread brands, revealing “triple-digit” levels of the herbicide glyphosate.
“Glyphosate is a weed killer,” DeSantis said. “It’s the main ingredient you find in Roundup and other weed-killing brands. It’s designed to kill plants, it is not meant to be eaten.”
The group has released findings of “toxins” in food products such as baby formula and candy, publicizing its results to warn people about purportedly dangerous chemicals in everyday products.
DeSantis said warning labels on products containing glyphosate include emergency instructions for exposure, “and make clear these products are not meant for people to touch, not meant to be in the food and certainly not meant to be consumed, and yet here we are today with these findings.”
But the minute amount of glyphosate DeSantis’ group reported finding in bread isn’t dangerous for people to consume.
The highest glyphosate level the group listed is 191 parts per billion. That might sound scary, but it’s only a tiny fraction of the trace amount of glyphosate the government says food can safely contain.
Chemicals in food — even those found in weed killers — are not necessarily harmful, experts said. Today’s food tests are sensitive enough to detect minuscule amounts of different substances. And that’s how much glyphosate was identified in the Health Florida First bread tests: trace amounts.
“Based on the weight of evidence, these are not particularly high or dangerous levels of glyphosate,” said Norbert Kaminski, a toxicologist and director of the Center for Research on Ingredient Safety at Michigan State University.
The Healthy Florida First website lacks that context and DeSantis doesn’t explain what the numbers mean.
When we asked the governor’s office about the first lady’s remarks, a spokesperson directed PolitiFact to the Florida Department of Health, which did not reply to our request for comment.
Healthy Florida First says the department conducts its food tests using independent, third-party labs. The group so far hasn’t publicly identified those labs, its testing protocols, or methodology.
How is glyphosate regulated in the U.S. food supply?
Glyphosate is widely used in agriculture to control weeds and grass, which is why trace amounts find their way into so many food products.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration testing has shown pesticide residue in over 60% of U.S. food samples, but the vast majority of the samples — more than 97% — contained residue within federal regulatory limits.
The FDA and the Environmental Protection Agency both regulate pesticides in the U.S. food supply.
Looking at factors such as a pesticide’s toxicity and how it breaks down over time, the EPA determines how much pesticide residue food can contain without harming people. The FDA enforces those limits. PolitiFact asked the EPA about Florida’s glyphosate findings but did not receive a response.
Foods with unsafe levels of glyphosate could be seized by the federal government, the EPA says, and the breads tested by Florida were not.
How does the glyphosate found in Florida testing compare with safety standards?
Healthy Florida First says its tests, which evaluated popular bread brands such as Nature’s Own and Wonder Bread, found glyphosate levels ranging from non-detectable to 191.04 parts per billion.
Parts per billion measures extremely low concentrations 1,000 times smaller than parts per million. For example, one part per billion equals 1 cent in $10 million or 1 second in 32 years.
The amount of glyphosate Florida found is nowhere near the EPA’s limit for the substance’s residue in food, which is up to 30 parts per million — or 30,000 parts per billion.
Even if a person weighing 150 pounds ate about 18,850 slices of bread with glyphosate levels at 200 parts per billion, every day, it would still be within a glyphosate consumption range that’s considered safe.
How is glyphosate in food different from glyphosate in herbicides?
DeSantis cited product labels that warn about accidental exposure to chemicals such as glyphosate.
“There is a major disconnect between a chemical labeled as unsafe to ingest and its quiet presence in everyday food like bread,” she said.
But experts told PolitiFact it’s misleading to compare product warning labels for raw or concentrated chemicals — like those found in pesticides you can buy at a hardware store — with the trace amounts that might be found in food.
The concentration of glyphosate in commercial weed killers, for example, is estimated to be tens of thousands to millions of times higher than the traces in some foods after environmental degradation and food processing.
The chemical warning labels typically indicate hazards or risks from direct, high-level exposure to these concentrated substances, such as swallowing a pesticide solution or having it sprayed in your eyes.
Take trisodium phosphate. Google it, and you’ll get ads for heavy-duty cleaning products used to prep walls before painting. We previously reported that warning labels say direct contact with trisodium phosphate powder can be irritating to eyes and skin and poisonous if exposed in large amounts.
But it is also an ingredient in cereals and other processed foods, including cheeses and baked goods. In small amounts, the FDA and the European Food Safety Authority say it’s fine in food. It controls pH levels and acts as a leavening agent to make food fluffier.
Experts have consistently said “the dose makes the poison,” meaning the toxicity of a substance in large, raw amounts doesn’t necessarily translate to it being dangerous in broken down, minute amounts.
“The level of exposure is what matters,” Kaminski said. “Every chemical, including water and table salt can be toxic at a high enough dose, but we don’t typically add warning labels for these.”
PolitiFact Staff Writer Grace Abels contributed to this report.
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