Florida has published its third report under the Healthy Florida First initiative since it was announced in January. The latest report focuses on controversial herbicide glyphosate in bread.

Like the previous two reports published under the state food testing program—which raised alarms about arsenic in candy and toxic heavy metals in infant formula—the report on glyphosate in bread lacks any details about the sampling, testing, and analysis methodology.

Florida Reports Glyphosate Levels in Bread

The highest levels of glyphosate in bread reported by Healthy Florida First were 190.23 parts-per-billion (ppb) in Nature’s Own Butter Bread and 132.34 ppb in Nature’s Own Perfectly Crafted White, followed by 11.85 ppb in Dave’s Killer Bread White Done Right and 10.38 ppb in Dave’s Killer Bread 21 Whole Grain.

In a statement, First Lady Casey DeSantis said “The results from the Florida Department of Health’s analysis of bread testing results show troubling levels of glyphosate.”

Experts Criticize Lack of Scientific Transparency in Florida’s Food Testing Reports

However, toxicologists criticize the lack of scientific transparency in the Healthy Florida First reports. Important data for interpreting and contextualizing the results, which the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) or the Governor’s office have not disclosed, include the sampling and testing parameters, the analytical methods used, the laboratory’s limits of detection (LODs), or the health thresholds and outcomes being referenced when declaring that the levels of a contaminant in products are “unsafe.”

Florida-based toxicologist and Certified Industrial Hygienist Alex LeBeau, Ph.D., M.P.H., C.I.H. told Food Safety Magazine that, without important scientific context, the results presented by the Healthy Florida First initiative “do not convey any interpretable meaning” and create “unnecessary alarmist reporting.”

Bread Industry Asserts Food Safety

The bread industry also took issue with Florida’s latest report. A joint statement from the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG), North American Miller’s Association (NAMA), and American Bakers Association (ABA) said “Food safety is the top priority for the grain we grow, the flour we mill, and the bread we bake for all Americans,” and that the report “Needlessly scares consumers about trace levels of glyphosate that do not present genuine risks.”

The industry associations pointed out that “Glyphosate is regulated and continuously reviewed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ensure levels are safe for all consumers.”

Controversy About Safety of Glyphosate

Whether or not EPA does enough to protect consumers from glyphosate—and if any glyphosate exposure is safe—is a topic of debate, however.

EPA has established tolerances for glyphosate on a wide range of human and animal food crops, including corn, soybean, oil seeds, grains, and some fruits and vegetables, ranging from 0.1 to 400 ppm.

In contrast, consumer watchdog the Environmental Working Group (EWG), known for producing its own contaminant testing reports, previously established its own “safe” intake level for glyphosate in children at 0.01 milligrams (mg) per day, which would be reached by consuming 60 grams (g) of food containing 160 parts per billion (ppb) of glyphosate. For context, EWG’s “safe” limit for glyphosate is ten times less than the state of California’s Proposition 65 No Significant Risk Level (NSRL) of 1.1 mg per day.

Notably, a journal article asserting the safety of glyphosate, which for decades served as a cornerstone piece of evidence for regulatory approvals for herbicides containing the chemical, was recently retracted due to revelations of the authors’ previously undisclosed conflicts of interest. This retraction, alongside personal injury lawsuits against Roundup (which contains glyphosate) alleging harm from the chemical, as well as recent studies suggesting glyphosate’s carcinogenicity, have increased public fears about its potential health harms.