Food is supposed to nourish us, not dose us with weedkiller.
A baby’s first spoonfuls, a child’s school lunch, the bread on the dinner table — these are the building blocks of life. Yet the 25th Australian Total Diet Study (ATDS) found glyphosate residues scattered across many of those same staples: breads, cereals, biscuits, even infant foods.
Regulators point to the numbers and reassure us. The study concluded that even the highest consumers are taking in less than 1% of the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for glyphosate. In their view, that makes it safe.
But exposure doesn’t begin with one slice of bread or a handful of biscuits. It begins before birth — and continues, in small daily doses, for a lifetime. From conception to breastfeeding, from infant cereals to playground dust, glyphosate has become a quiet background presence in the human story. The real question isn’t whether we’re under a limit. It’s why a weedkiller is woven into our diets and our lives at all.
The Comfort of Numbers
The Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) is the regulator’s favourite safety blanket. For glyphosate, it’s set at 0.3 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day — or 300 micrograms per kilo. For a nine-month-old weighing around 9 kilos, that means 2,700 micrograms per day is officially “acceptable.”
The ATDS compared dietary exposures against that number and found that across all age groups, even high-end consumers were still below 1% of the ADI. To the regulator, that looks like proof of safety. “Less than 1%” sounds reassuring, neat, definitive.
But what does it really mean?
- The ADI comes from older toxicology studies in animals, not modern evidence about infants, pregnancy, or low-dose impacts.
- It assumes a threshold below which glyphosate has no effect at all. Yet newer research suggests endocrine disruption, microbiome changes, and oxidative stress can occur at doses far smaller than the “acceptable” allowance.
- And perhaps most importantly, the ADI considers glyphosate in isolation. It doesn’t account for the dozens of other pesticide residues detected in the same diets, or for exposures from water, dust, and spray drift.
So yes, the numbers make the situation look comforting. But comfort is not the same as protection. The ADI may be neat science on paper, but it tells only a fraction of the real story.
Before Birth — Conception and Pregnancy
Glyphosate exposure doesn’t start with a baby’s first spoonful of food. It can begin even earlier — long before birth.
Both parents may already have glyphosate in their systems before conception. Human biomonitoring studies have detected glyphosate in urine and blood samples worldwide, showing just how widespread exposure has become. Research has linked these residues to changes in sperm quality, hormone disruption, and other reproductive effects.
For mothers, daily intakes from food and water — even when labelled “tiny” — shape the internal environment in which eggs mature and pregnancies begin.
Once pregnancy is underway, those small daily intakes don’t just stop at the mother. They cross into the baby’s world. Studies have shown that glyphosate can move through the placenta, meaning the developing child’s very first environment is already shaped by chemical residues.
The ATDS numbers may call these exposures “less than 1%,” but for a foetus in the midst of rapid cell division, hormonal signalling, and organ formation, the dose–response picture may not look so simple.
This is the part the official dietary models don’t cover: a chemical designed to kill plants becoming part of the story of human reproduction. Before a baby has taken its first breath, glyphosate may already have entered the picture.
Early Life — Breastfeeding and Infant Foods
For many babies, their very first food isn’t cereal or purée — it’s breastmilk. And in the United States, studies have found glyphosate residues in breastmilk samples. The detections were small, but the fact they were there at all was enough to raise questions: if glyphosate can travel through a mother’s body and into her milk, then exposure may begin in the first hours of life!
Once infants begin solids, the 25th Australian Total Diet Study shows where glyphosate enters the picture. Infant foods and cereals made up around 43% of estimated glyphosate intake in nine-month-olds. Biscuits and crackers also contributed, while fruit purées and juices — though not tested in detail for glyphosate in that report — are often flagged in international monitoring for multiple pesticide residues.
Add in eggs, where glyphosate has been detected in the yolk due to contaminated poultry feed, and the story becomes harder to dismiss. Even at this earliest stage of development, a baby’s diet may be delivering glyphosate through more than one route.
The amounts look tiny in official modelling, but the reality is unavoidable: from the breast to the highchair, glyphosate has already found its way into the foods most associated with growth and safety.
Childhood and the Growing Diet
As children grow, their diets expand — and so do their routes of exposure. The ATDS shows that for kids aged 2–12, bread and cereals are the biggest drivers of glyphosate intake, making up more than half of estimated exposure. Biscuits and crackers also feature strongly, particularly for younger children.
Fruit adds another layer. Apples, raisins, and grapes routinely appear on “Dirty Dozen” lists of produce most likely to carry multiple pesticide residues. While glyphosate isn’t always tested separately in those lists, international monitoring confirms it has been detected in both fresh fruit and dried products. For children who snack on fruit daily, that’s another steady drip-feed of chemical exposure.
And the ATDS figures only capture food. They don’t account for the playgrounds and sports fields where glyphosate is used for weed control, the verges sprayed on the walk to school, or the dust brought inside on shoes and clothing. For young children — who crawl, play, and put their hands in their mouths — these overlooked sources may rival or even exceed dietary intake.
So by the time a child is in primary school, glyphosate is no longer a trace in baby food. It’s a regular, background presence in sandwiches, snacks, fruit bowls, and play spaces.
Adulthood and Lifelong Intake
By adulthood, glyphosate has become so normalised that most people barely notice it. The staples of the adult diet — bread, cereals, beer, wine, processed foods — are all potential carriers. Grain-based products in particular remain the biggest dietary source, just as the ATDS highlighted for children.
But food is only part of the story. Adults may also be exposed through drinking water, workplace contact (farmers, council staff, groundskeepers), and home use of weedkillers on driveways, lawns, and gardens. Glyphosate residues have been detected in air, rainwater, and household dust, meaning daily intake continues even without direct handling.
And unlike infants, adults face this background exposure for decades. It isn’t one day or one year — it’s cumulative. Year after year, low-level doses stack together, with effects that may not show up until midlife or later: hormone imbalances, metabolic disruption, reproductive difficulties, or chronic diseases that don’t carry a chemical warning label.
From breakfast toast to backyard spraying, glyphosate becomes a thread running through the fabric of daily life. It’s not just a childhood issue — it shadows us across a lifetime.
What the Numbers Miss
On paper, the 25th Australian Total Diet Study looks reassuring. Every age group, from infants to adults, showed dietary intakes of glyphosate at less than 1% of the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI). Regulators point to that and declare the chemical safe.
But there are big holes in that story.
1. Outdated science
The ADI is built on decades-old toxicology studies that assumed glyphosate had no effect below a certain threshold. Modern research paints a different picture: endocrine disruption, microbiome changes, oxidative stress, and even developmental impacts have all been reported at doses far below the so-called “safe” limit.
2. Chemical cocktails
The ATDS looks at glyphosate alone. But in reality, consumers aren’t exposed to one chemical at a time. The same diets that deliver glyphosate also carry residues of fungicides, insecticides, and other herbicides. Regulators don’t test for the combined effect of these mixtures, even though that’s what the body actually experiences.
3. Only the food on the plate
The ATDS measures residues in food. It doesn’t capture exposure from spray drift, playgrounds, backyards, water, or dust. For young children especially, these non-dietary pathways may equal or exceed what comes from bread and biscuits.
4. The illusion of safety in small numbers
By presenting exposures as “less than 1%,” regulators shift the focus to how low the numbers are. But ubiquity is the real concern: glyphosate shows up in every life stage and almost every meal. Safety shouldn’t be measured by how little of a chemical we can tolerate — but by whether it belongs in our food and bodies at all.
A Lifelong Story We Didn’t Choose
From conception to old age — or for some, to premature death and/or a lifetime of unexplained illness — glyphosate shadows us.
Parents may already have it in their systems before a child is conceived. Trace amounts can cross the placenta during pregnancy. Breastmilk has tested positive, meaning exposure may begin in the first hours of life.
Infant foods, cereals, bread, honey, fruit, and vegetables add their share. By childhood, playgrounds and backyards add another layer. By adulthood, glyphosate is so normalised in bread, beer, wine, and processed foods that we stop even asking why it’s there.
The 25th Australian Total Diet Study frames this as reassuring: less than 1% of the Acceptable Daily Intake. But that statistic hides more than it reveals. It doesn’t count what passes through the placenta. It doesn’t count breastmilk. It doesn’t count dust, spray drift, or soil on a child’s hands. And it doesn’t reckon with the science showing biological effects at levels far lower than the “acceptable” limit.
So yes, the official numbers look small. But the bigger truth is that glyphosate has become a permanent background presence — one we never chose, and one we never voted on. The real question isn’t whether exposure is under an arbitrary limit. It’s whether we should accept a weedkiller as part of the human story from the first hours of life until our last breath.
Resources & References
The following studies and reports offer a starting point for anyone wanting to look deeper into glyphosate’s presence in our food and lives. They are not exhaustive — just the tip of a growing body of research that continues to raise questions about safety, regulation, and long-term health effects.
25th Australian Total Diet Study (2019)
Published by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) — the independent Australian Government agency responsible for developing food standards and setting chemical limits in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. This study was a comprehensive survey of agricultural and veterinary chemical residues in Australian foods. It found glyphosate residues across breads, cereals, biscuits, and infant foods, with dietary exposures estimated at <1% of the ADI.
Read the 25th ATDS (PDF)
25th ATDS Appendices – Detailed Data Tables (PDF)
Glyphosate in NZ Honey – First Test Results
Independent testing confirmed glyphosate residues in honey marketed as “pure” and “natural.”
/glyphosate-honey-test-results-batch-4/
September 2025 Bread Glyphosate Test Results
Supermarket bread samples showed measurable glyphosate residues, aligning with the ATDS finding that bread is a major dietary contributor.
/september-2025-bread-glyphosate-test-results/
Glyphosate and Hormone Disruption: What We Know So Far
Early review of evidence suggesting glyphosate can interfere with human hormones, even at levels far below regulatory “safe” thresholds.
(Coming soon to NoMoreGlyphosate.nz)
Breastmilk Glyphosate Studies (US, 2014–2016)
Testing in the US detected glyphosate in some breastmilk samples, raising concerns that exposure may begin in the very first hours of life.
US Breastmilk Glyphosate Study Summary – Moms Across America
Dirty Dozen Produce List (2025)
Annual ranking of fruits and vegetables most likely to carry pesticide residues, with apples and raisins regularly among the top offenders.
EWG’s 2025 Dirty Dozen
These are just a handful of sources among hundreds now documenting glyphosate’s reach. The science is still evolving — and growing — but the pattern is undeniable. Every year, new research adds to the evidence that glyphosate exposure begins earlier, spreads further, and lasts longer than regulators would have us believe.
Image Source & Attribution
A big thank you to the creators at Unsplash for making their images freely available for projects like ours. The image featured on this page is by Curated Lifestyle. You can explore more of their work here: https://unsplash.com/@curatedlifestyle.
