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Pesticides glyphosate detected in numerous beer varieties
After glyphosate was discovered in beer last year, recent research has again shown that residues of the plant protection product and other chemical substances can be found in numerous beers. How dangerous the residues found can be remains unclear.
Weed killer in german beer
In the past year, studies have shown not only that glyphosate was detectable in beers, but also that residues of the plant venom in most of the Germans in the urine can be measured. The demands for a ban on glyphosate became louder. But now, research results have been published again, which make it clear that the weed killer can still be found today in local beers.
Recent studies have found residues of the plant protection product glyphosate in numerous German beers. The weed killer is considered "probably carcinogenic". (Image: Syda Productions / fotolia.com) Pesticides obviously survive the brewing process
As reported by the Lower Saxony State Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (Laves) on its website, a total of 22 samples of full beer were tested for pesticide residues by the Food and Veterinary Institute Oldenburg des Laves in 2017.
21 of the beers were from Germany, one from Belgium. In a total of 18 samples (17 beer samples from German production, one from Belgium) residues of pesticides were detectable.
Four samples, including a German organic beer, contained no residues.
Ten beer samples contained only one crop protection product, six samples had two active substances, and two samples each determined three pesticide residues.
Residues most frequently included the Halmverkürzungsmittel chlormequat (9x) and the total herbicide glyphosate (7x) in the samples examined here.
According to Laves, the results indicate that the pesticides used in hops and cereals apparently survive the brewing process at least in part and can reach the finished beers.
Pesticides in 80 percent of beer samples
The Lower Saxony Minister of Agriculture and Food Christian Meyer (Green) thinks it "is a shocking result that has been found in more than 80 percent of beer samples pesticides and thereby sometimes equal residues of three different plant and insect poisons," said the politician the "Hamburger Abendblatt".
"I am particularly shocked that around one-third of the samples found glyphosate, which is suspected of being carcinogenic," Meyer said.
Two years ago, glyphosate was considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be "probably carcinogenic" according to the latest findings of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
Last year, the Munich Environmental Institute - following glyphosate discoveries in various types of beer - called on the breweries to banish the substance from the beer.
According to the experts, although the situation has apparently improved somewhat, the all-clear can not yet be given.
Situation has apparently improved
The Environmental Institute Munich has recently had the same beers tested as it was in 2016. Back then, as now, residues of glyphosate were detected in all the beers analyzed.
But: "It is pleasing that the glyphosate residues we found this year are on average much lower than a year ago," the experts write in their report.
According to the information, the beverages analyzed were the 14 most popular German beers.
The drinking water limit of 0.1 micrograms per liter is exceeded by all, but the values have fallen on average by almost 80 percent.
"Some breweries manage to achieve consistently low residue levels. But none of the tested breweries manages to banish the Ackergift completely from the beer, "it says in a message.
How dangerous are the residues found??
But how dangerous are the finds? The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) has stated in the past that it does not see any cancer risk for consumers in the amounts found.
However, the Munich Environmental Institute writes: "In absolute terms, the amounts of residue found in beer are small. However, there is no lower limit to carcinogenic and DNA-damaging substances under which they are safe. They can have a harmful effect on even the smallest amounts. "
As expected, the German Brewers Association has a different position: "For decades, glyphosate has been included as active ingredient in a number of pesticides approved in Germany and worldwide, the use of which may result in residues in harvested produce and food," the association writes in a statement.
"A large number of official and non-official studies have declared these traces harmless to health," it continues.
The Brauerbund points out that according to BfR, one adult would have to drink around 1,000 liters of beer a day to ingest harmful amounts of glyphosate. (Ad)