Developing Story: FDA Discontinues Glyphosate Residue Food Testing Program

Via The Huffington Post: 

Government testing for residues of an herbicide that has been linked to cancer has been put on hold, slowing the FDA’s first-ever endeavor to get a handle on just how much of the controversial chemical glyphosate is making its way into U.S. food, reports former Reuters reporter and current research director for U.S. Right To Know Carrie Gillam.

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The FDA, the nation’s chief food safety regulator, launched what it calls a “special assignment” earlier this year to analyze certain foods for residues of the weed killer called glyphosate after the agency was criticized by the U.S. Government Accountability Office for failing to include glyphosate in annual testing programs that look for many less-used pesticides. Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the world, and is the key ingredient in Monsanto Co.’s branded Roundup herbicide line.

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Glyphosate is under particular scrutiny now after the World Health Organization’s cancer experts last year declared the chemical a probable human carcinogen. Several private groups and nonprofits have been doing their own testing, and have been finding glyphosate residues in varying levels in a range of foods, raising consumer concerns about the pesticide’s presence in the American diet.

Head on over to the Huffington Post to check out Gillam’s full report.

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