Row over organic standards after glyphosate found in Tesco, Waitrose organic products

Environmental action group the Organics Council has detected “trace levels​” of the pesticide glyphosate in two out of the three certified organic grain and cereal products it tested as part of its organic product multi-residue pesticide survey basket, which examined various organic certified items purchased at UK supermarkets.

Waitrose Duchy Organic Farmhouse Batch wholemeal bread and Tesco Organic Plain Flour both tested positive for the pesticide at below the quantification threshold of 0.01mg/kg but at concentrations higher than 0.002mg/kg, the Organics Council said. Whole Earth Golden Organic Corn Flakes – the third cereal product examined in the survey – was not found to contain glyphosate.

The maximum statutory permitted pesticide glyphosate residue level is 0.01 mg/kg in the EU, while 0.002mg/kg is the lowest limit of quantification available by the test method used. The results fell somewhere between these two levels but the Organics Council said it cannot tell “how close​” to the threshold limit the glyphosate in these products were.

The UK representative of Germany’s Tentamus Group lab network, Minerva, carried out the tests. Samples were sent by them to their network lab Bilacon. As part of the same survey, the Organic Council also detected cyromazine in a single organic egg sample of Ocado Organic Eggs​.

A threat to the ‘efficacy and credibility of organic farming’

The Organics Council is a crowd-funded volunteer organisation with the stated aim of campaigning to “make organics more organic​”. It began its research two years.

Assuming no “deliberate malpractice​”, the Council said that historic soil contamination is one potential source of contamination. If this were the case it would highlight “failures when commissioning new organic farm sites​”, the Council said.

The environmentalists suggested that the transfer of contaminating substances between organic and non-organic farms could be another source of contamination due to “poorly set up buffer zone separation statutory requirements​”. Contamination could also have occurred post-harvest in mixed produce processing facilities, the Organic Council noted.

The Organic Council's Dr Esme Purdie, who was formerly an environmental microbiology and toxicology specialist at King’s College London, said that the results place a question mark over the effectiveness of measures to separate organic and conventional products.

“Assuming that no deliberate mal-practice has taken place here, it is evident that the current systems used to separate conventional and organic farming methods are not working. The apparent persistence and widespread dispersion of glyphosate in soils and water due to use in conventional farming, threatens the efficacy and credibility of organic farming,”​ Dr Purdie commented.

“This survey results highlight that the current organic regulations are not effectively protecting organic produce and an urgent review of agricultural policies and systems are required to stop any further contamination of our soils with persistent and harmful contaminants, such as glyphosate.”​

‘An exaggeration at best, misleading at worst’

UK organic certification body the Soil Association was more conservative in its interpretation of the survey’s findings.

“Extrapolating these results to be indicative of widespread contamination with carcinogenic pesticide of organic grain and cereal products sold in UK supermarkets is an exaggeration at best, misleading at worst,”​ a spokesperson for the organisation told FoodNavigator.

“Regarding the results claimed for organic flour, the lab cannot quantify glyphosate at less than .01 mg/kg and is therefore inconclusive on what the level is. Organics Council claim it is more than .002 mg/kg but this level is so low (2 parts per 100 million) that it is at the limit of detection,​” the spokesperson stressed.

The Soil Association also highlighted what it termed a “significant lack of detail​” released by the Organic Council. The spokesperson continued: “The Soil Association is not able to comment on whether this is a genuine survey because of the significant lack of detail. The release indicates that only three samples were taken. Key information needed to make sense of any testing for contamination includes: sampling protocols, sample integrity, whether the test is accredited appropriately, and scientific interpretation of the results.”​

However, the Soil Association and the Organics Council agree on one point: the need to move away from a reliance on pesticides in agricultural production.

“Organic foods occasionally contain traces of pesticides at very low levels, usually as a result of environmental contamination. This is exactly the reason we need to move to other ways of farming, less reliant on pesticides,”​ the spokesperson suggested.

For its part, Waitrose told FoodNavigator: “W​e are not aware of the Organics Council, or their methodology, and we know that The Soil Association has serious concerns about the validity of these findings."​

Tesco did not respond to requests for comment.

'They only listen to the industry' 

A spokesperson for the Organics Council questioned the Soil Association's motives for attempting to undermine the credibility of its tests, stressing that the big beast of organic certification could have a vested interest in protecting the status quo. The Soil Association did not contact the Organics Council prior to releasing its public statement in order to gain access to details of the test results and methodology, the spokesperson noted. 

"The Soil Association seems only to be listening to its trade partners when they should pay attention to what the public wants, which is purer organics,"​ the spokesperson told FoodNavigator. 

The Council has also reached out to both Tesco and Waitrose. "We have now contacted Tesco and Waitrose supermarkets asking for their feedback or complaint grounds about our test reports and if they need assistance verifying their organic products were tainted with banned substances."​