New Testing Revealed Popular Kids Cereals Contaminated With Weedkiller Roundup

A new analysis reveals Wednesday that over 20 popular children’s cereals and snacks are contaminated with glyphosate—the main ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup.

The testing was commissioned by the Environmental Working Group (EWG)—the third round of such testing it’s undertaken—and looked at popular General Mills-made products, including several Cheerios varieties and various kinds of Nature Valley granola bars.

The findings come as glyphosate, which the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer declared a “probable carcinogen” in 2015, faces legal scrutiny as thousands of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma sufferers say that Bayer-Monsanto’s Roundup caused their cancer. Three courts in California have so far sided with plaintiffs and ordered the agri-chemical giant to pay billions in damages.

“As these latest tests show, a box of Cheerios or other oat-based foods on store shelves today almost certainly comes with a dose of a cancer-causing weedkiller,” said Olga Naidenko, Ph.D., vice president for science investigations at EWG.

According to EWG’s new testing of 21 products, the highest concentrations of glyphosate were found in Honey Nut Cheerios Medley Crunch (833 parts per billion,) Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal (729 ppb), and the maple brown sugar variety of Nature Valley Crunchy granola bars (566 ppb).