A lawsuit filed over the weekend on behalf of consumers in California and New York accuses PepsiCo of wrongfully labeling its Quaker Oats brand “100% natural” after small amounts of the pesticide glyphosate (commonly sold as RoundUp) were detected in some oatmeal, reports The New York Times. The plaintiffs are calling for the company to refund Quaker Oats customers, as well as for PepsiCo to remove glyphosate from the product or alert consumers to its presence.
A test paid for by the plaintiff’s lawyers found “glyphosate at a level of 1.18 parts per million in a sample of Quaker Oats Quick 1-Minute,” says the Times, amounting to about “4 percent of the 30 parts per million that the EPA allows in cereal grains.
The pesticide was likely added by farmers to dry out the oats and speed up harvesting, an increasingly common practice. PepsiCo says that it thoroughly cleans the oats before packaging: “Any levels of glyphosate that may remain are trace amounts and significantly below any limits which have been set by the EPA as safe for human consumption.”
But the plaintiffs, who filed their case in federal district courts in both states, argue that the amount of pesticide isn’t the issue. “The issue is that Quaker advertises these products as 100 percent natural, and glyphosate in any amount is not natural,” said Kim Richman of the Richman Law Group, which is representing the plaintiffs. Last year, the research arm of the WHO declared glyphosate a “probable carcinogen.”