Abstract
Samples of honey (sixty nine), pancake and corn syrup (twenty six), soy sauce (twenty eight), soy milk (eleven), and tofu (twenty) purchased in the Philadelphia, US metropolitan area were analyzed for glyphosate residue using ELISA. The limit of quantification (LOQ) and range of the method were determined for honey, pancake syrup, and corn syrup to be 15 to 800 ppb; soy sauce, soy milk, and tofu 75 to 4,000 ppb. Glyphosate residues above the limit of quantification were not found in pancake and corn syrup, soy milk, and tofu. Of the sixty-nine honey samples analyzed, forty-one samples, or fifty-nine percent (59%), had glyphosate concentrations above the method LOQ (15 ppb), with a concentration range between 17 and 163 ppb and a mean of 64 ppb. Eleven of the tested honey samples were organic; five of the organic honey samples, or forty-five percent (45%), contained glyphosate concentrations above the method LOQ, with a range of 26 to 93 ppb and a mean of 50 ppb. Of the fifty-eight non-organic honey samples, thirty-six samples, or sixty-two percent (62%), contained glyphosate concentrations above the method LOQ, with a range of 17 to 163 ppb and a mean of 66 ppb. In addition to comparison of production method (organic vs. conventional), the honey results were evaluated according to pollen source and by country of origin, grouped by GMO usage (prohibited, limited, or permitted). Glyphosate concentrations above the method LOQ (75 ppb) were also found in ten of the twenty-eight soy sauce samples evaluated (36%), with a concentration range between 88 and 564 ppb and a mean of 242 ppb; all organic soy sauce samples tested were below the method LOQ.
Highlights
Food consumption is an important pathway of human exposure to pesticides and other chemical contaminants
To determine the accuracy of the glyphosate analysis for the sample matrices analyzed in this study, matrix samples that were glyphosate negative and positive were spiked as follows: 15, 40, 100, 200 and 400 ng/
The limit of quantification and range of the method were determined for honey, pancake and corn syrup to be 15 to 800 ng/g; soy sauce, soy milk, and tofu 75 to 4,000 ng/
Summary
Food consumption is an important pathway of human exposure to pesticides and other chemical contaminants. Studies have shown that exposure to contaminants in food could pose a public health risk [1,2,3]. Glyphosate (N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine) (Figure 1), commonly sold under Monsanto’s trade name Roundup®, is a non-selective herbicide that inhibits 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (ESPS) in the shikimic acid pathway present in plants, bacteria, and archae [6]. EPSP synthase is the rate limiting step in the synthesis of various aromatic acids; inhibition of this enzyme results in depletion of aromatic amino acids such as phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan [7]. Glyphosate trans locates readily in plants, making it effective for controlling perennial weeds and overwintering rhizomes and tubers
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