LAUSR

Underlying the risk management of pesticides to protect human health and to facilitate trade among nations is sound scientific data on the levels of compliance with standards set by governments and international from monitoring of the levels of pesticides in foods. Although glyphosate is among the universally used pesticides in the world, monitoring has been hampered by the analytical difficulties in dealing with this highly polar compound. By using a liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method that permits accurate and reproducible determination of glyphosate, the prevalence, concentrations and compliance rates were determined. In this work, the glyphosate residues analyses in 7955 samples of fresh fruits and vegetables, milled grain products, pulse products, and finished foods available in Canada from April 2015 to March 2017 are reported. A total of 3366 samples (42.3%) contained detectable glyphosate residues. The compliance rate with Canadian regulations was 99.4 %. There were 46 non-compliant samples. Health Canada determined that there was no long-term health risk to Canadian consumers from exposure to the levels of glyphosate found in the samples of a variety of foods surveyed. Trends regarding glyphosate content with respect to food origin and food type are analyzed and discussed. The high level of compliance (99.4% of samples with the Canadian regulatory limits) and the lack of a health risk for non-compliant samples indicate that, with respect to glyphosates, the food available for sale in Canada is safe.