Fact Check: Does Banza Pasta Actually Contain Glyphosate?

A round of testing conducted on behalf of a national moms' group is raising eyebrows, after the group declared that a popular gluten-free pasta alternative from Banza contains higher than normal levels of the herbicide glyphosate. If you're unfamiliar with the compound, it's one of the main ingredients in the weed killer Roundup, which has faced lawsuits over claims that exposure to glyphosate and other chemicals in the herbicide has been associated with an increased risk of cancer.

Keep reading as I break down Banza's glyphosate results, including what the higher ups at Banza have to say about the findings.

Moms Across America posted its findings after having 46 different gluten-free products tested for the prescience of several different compounds, including gluten and glyphosate/AMPA. The organization then shared the full breakdown from the Health Research Institute lab, showing detailed information about the levels of glyphosate found in each product.

According to the report linked on the Health Research Institute website, Banza Cavatappi (described as "Low Glyphosate Pasta" in the report) tested positive for 2837.19 nanograms/grams (ng/g) of glyphosate and 26.14 ng/g of AMPA, giving it an effective glyphosate level of 2876.41 ng/g.

According to Moms Across America, the lab allegedly said this was the highest glyphosate finding ever detected in food brought there for testing.

But, some experts are saying "not so fast," about the report, noting that the information hasn't gone through the process needed to confirm its accuracy, including the process of peer-review publication.

Additionally, a dietitian told Verywell magazine that there isn't really enough information about the dangers of glyphosate to sound the alarm quite yet.

"To date, we do not have any evidence to show that glyphosate is toxic to humans in the dose that we are exposed to on average," registered dietitian Lea Barron told the online magazine. "Studies that have shown toxic effects — these are the ones that usually get used to scare people — are typically conducted in animals and use levels of glyphosate that a human would never realistically be exposed to."

That said, humans who work directly with the chemical have been exposed to such levels. Most notably, tens of thousands of cancer patients who were exposed to excessive amounts of Roundup have sued Monsanto/Bayer, the producers of Roundup. They have alleged that the company did not provide an adequate warning that the glyphosate-based product causes cancer.

In response to the report, Banza released a statement on its website claiming that glyphosate is so ubiquitous that levels can be found in almost every food, including those claiming to be organic.

Then the company addressed the specific findings from the Moms Across America report, writing that in a similar round of testing conducted with the same product and lot number produced much lower findings in their lab, claiming that glyphosate levels were only detected at 0.1 part per million.

Banza says that is 97 percent lower than the numbers provided by Moms Across America.

To further reassure customers, Banza added a bit about the company's processing efforts, revealing that as of August 2024 the company was only using suppliers that were either legally obligated or who had pledged to avoid using glyphosate during the harvesting process.

You can read more about the rest of Banza's statement, including more specific information about the company's testing and manufacturing process, by visiting the Banza website.

Overall, there is no evidence that Banza chickpea pasta contains more glyphosate than most other foods.