Warning over carcinogenic weed killer chemical contamination of bread sold in UK


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The Evening Standard

Bread being sold in UK supermarkets is being contaminated with a weed killer chemical which could be carcinogenic, it was claimed today.

The Soil Association warned bread could contain the chemical because of a farming practice it says should have been banned.

It called for the government, farmers, the milling industry and supermarkets to ensure bread containing glyphosate residue is taken off supermarket shelves.

Current traces of the chemical are well below the European safety threshold - but the level was set before new information about the potentially toxic effects of glyphosate emerged.

In March, a World Health Organisation report published in The Lancet Oncology journal concluded that the chemical "probably" caused cancer in humans, based on a thorough review of scientific evidence.

However the finding is controversial and has been dismissed as invalid by German regulators.

Glyphosate is the chief ingredient in Roundup, the world's most widely used herbicide, made by the agritech company Monsanto.

Soil Association policy director Peter Melchett said: "We cannot ignore the World Health Organisation's findings that glyphosate is a probable cause of cancer - the risks are too great.

"The Soil Association is calling for an immediate stop to glyphosate sprays on wheat destined for use in bread. The glyphosate spraying season starts now, and in the interests of human health and the quality of British bread, the Government needs to call a halt to the spraying before it starts."

Alex Waugh, from the National Association of British and Irish Millers, which represents the flour industry, said: "The UK Government surveys glyphosate residues in bread every year and most of the bread doesn't contain detectable residues. Where they are present, they're well below the regulatory limit.

"I'm not going to say there's no problem with glyphosate, but there probably isn't a problem with glyphosate and bread right now.

"The millers and bakers will continue to talk to their suppliers and ask what can be done to minimise these residues. But if the choice is to have a crop that you can turn into bread and not having one then I'd rather have the crop."