Determining the presence of glyphosate and glyphosate-tolerant events in maize and soybean food products in South Africa.
Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the world. In South Africa, glyphosate is predominantly used in the production of herbicide-tolerant (HT) maize and soybean. Considering that maize is a staple food and soybean an important source of protein, this study aimed to determine whether glyphosate is present in food products consumed by the general population in South Africa. Food products (81) were purchased from local supermarkets and screened for the presence of glyphosate and HT events using ELISA and real-time PCR, respectively. The majority of products contained glyphosate (66.7%) but at a level below the maximum residue limit. Glyphosate HT event(s) were detected in 70.4% of products but not associated with the presence of glyphosate in all products. This study has confirmed that South African consumers are exposed to low levels of glyphosate reported to cause genotoxic effects at the cellular level.
['Viljoen|Christopher D|CD|', 'Koortzen|B J|BJ|', 'Sreenivasan Tantuan|Sandhya|S|https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5451-0132']
D005506:Food Contamination D005998:Glycine D006540:Herbicides D006801:Humans D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified D013019:South Africa D013025:Soybeans D003313:Zea mays
Glyphosate food South Africa herbicide-tolerant