Turn on the TV and flip through the channels until you find a commercial, movie or sitcom where a family is sitting down for breakfast. Orange juice is almost sure to be on the table. Fruit juice — specifically orange juice — is a favorite among children and adults alike. When you reach for a carton at the grocery store, what do you look for on the label? Many brands now include a claim of “100% Pure Orange Juice,” to help consumers feel safe when buying it, drinking it and serving it to their families. But it turns out there may be dangerous ingredients hiding in your favorite OJ — one specifically that has been linked to cancer.
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In 2017, Moms Across America, a group of moms on a mission to raise awareness about toxic exposure and create healthy communities, sent the top five orange juice brands — Tropicana, Minute Maid, Stater Bros, Signature Farms and Kirkland — to an accredited lab to be tested. Every single brand tested positive for glyphosate weed killer. Glyphosate is the active chemical ingredient in Monsanto’s popular weed killer, Roundup. Roundup is the most widely used herbicide in the world, often used on citrus trees, such as oranges.
Moms Across America recently sent the same orange juice brands in again to be tested. The test results showed each brand still contained glyphosate, in amounts ranging from 2.99 pbb to 17.16 pbb. The group also sent a sixth orange juice brand in to be tested — Florida’s Natural. It tested among the highest of all the brands for glyphosate residues, and the sample showed results nearly three times higher than last year’s test results provided to another organization, showing an increase in contamination, instead of a decrease.
Moms Across America is releasing the test results, again, and publicly asking companies to stop sourcing oranges from farmers who use glyphosate. The takeaway? Don’t fall for a label that claims to be “100% natural.” The FDA does not measure pesticide residues in their food, nor do they include glyphosate in their official testing. The toxic weed killer is now believed to be in most foods sold in the U.S. Commercial fruit juices have also been shown to contain arsenic, cadmium and lead. Buying fresh, organic produce and juicing it at home might just be the way to go.