Glyphosate found in ready-made soups in Italy

27 February 2024

The consumer rights magazine Il Salvagente (a member of SAFE) conducted an investigation on ready-made soups, discovering that these products often contain glyphosate. Upon examining the test results of 12 ready-made soups with legumes marketed in Italy glyphosate frequently appears, both in conventional products and even in organic ones. The presence of pesticides, albeit often only in trace amounts, is almost a constant in the examined products.

In one soup, the analysis also detected the presence of cyfluthrin, an insecticide whose license was revoked in July 2021. Given the minimal quantity found (0.002 mg/kg), it could be due to soil pollution from past uses rather than intentional use. However, Il Salvagente argues, a substance banned in Europe is showing up in soups, indicating significant environmental contamination from pesticides at a time when the EU has decided to yield to the interests and pressures of agro-industry.

Under the scrutiny of our laboratory, traces of other pesticides have also emerged: in the vast majority of the analyzed batches, we found the presence of plant protection products at very low concentrations (below 0.01). However, in some cases – Conad and Euroverde Bontà di stagione lentil soup – the “traces” of past treatments even reach up to 5.