Results of wheat, oats, and corn sampling for glyphosate by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Petition: 422

Issue(s): Agriculture, human / environmental health, pesticides, toxic substances

Petitioner(s): A Canadian organization

Petitioner Location(s):  Montreal, Quebec

Date Received: 26 February 2019

Status: Completed—Response(s) to petition received

Summary: The petition expresses concerns about the contents of a 2015–2016 Canadian Food Inspection Agency report on glyphosate sampling of grain products, which reportedly excluded wheat, oats, and corn from the list of results. The petition suggests that the report’s omission of these products is important because, as the petition claims, these items are the most cultivated and among the most consumed in Canada, and they are suspected of being the most contaminated by glyphosate.

The petition requests that the Agency make public the results of the sample tests for wheat, oats, and corn in grain products that were not included in the 2015–2016 report. The petition asks the Agency to release a revised report that clearly explains that wheat, oats, and corn were not included in the results for the “grain products” and “infant cereals” categories. It asks the Health Minister, who is responsible for the Agency, to explain why the 2015–2016 report did not explicitly state that wheat, oats, and corn in grain products were excluded from the results. It also calls on Health Canada to provide information about why the Agency did not release the results of a similar 2018 study, which the petition claims would reveal a much higher level of contamination in wheat, oats, and corn than what was reported in the 2015–2016 report.

Federal Departments Responsible for Reply: Health Canada