By Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D.

Both organic and conventionally grown cereal products — including baked goods, whole grains, pasta, flours and breakfast products — contained high levels of the “forever chemical” trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), according to a report released this month by Global 2000.

Global 2000 is an independent environmental organization in Austria and a member of Friends of the Earth. For the study, the group teamed up with Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe to test 48 Austrian cereal products for TFA, a type of polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) known commonly as “forever chemicals.”

They found TFA in all samples, including products grown on land never touched by pesticides — an indication of how easily the chemical spreads via water and wind.

Salomé Roynel, PFAS policy & campaign officer at PAN Europe, told The Defender, “TFA … doesn’t break down in the environment and accumulates in water, soil and food. That means our daily exposure is and will keep growing.”

Helmut Burtscher-Schaden, Ph.D., an environmental chemist with GLOBAL 2000 and the report’s author, told The Defender that TFA is among the smallest forever chemicals.

It exists on its own, but is also produced when other kinds of PFAS break down. Gases for refrigeration, certain pesticides and pharmaceuticals, including Prozac, all produce TFA, he said.

“Urgent measures are needed to curb further contamination of our vital resources with this forever chemical,” Burtscher-Schaden wrote in the report.

Tjerk Dalhuisen, PAN Europe’s senior communications officer, agreed. TFA is “everywhere and if we don’t stop the very sources, it will get a lot worse,” he told The Defender.

Dalhuisen called the global situation “alarming.” He said:

“TFA has been identified as being toxic to reproduction, and it can harm the development of children. The authorities should immediately ban all products that break down to TFA, especially PFAS pesticides that are sprayed on fields and food.”

Roynel agreed. “We cannot afford to wait while contamination keeps rising. … What’s missing is political will.”

Burtscher-Schaden said some alternative pesticides and pharmaceuticals that don’t generate TFA could be used. For instance, one estimate showed that about 83% of pesticides don’t break down into TFA. Farmers could shift to using those products or organic methods.

Cereal products had 2 to 3 times more TFA than drinking water

For the study, researchers tested equal numbers of organic and conventionally grown cereal products.

Organically grown rye had the lowest TFA level, measuring at 13 micrograms per kilo (μg/kg). Conventional butter biscuits had the highest, at 420 μg/kg.

These amounts were double to triple the amounts reported in drinking water, groundwater and rainwater.

That’s because TFA becomes more concentrated in plants than in the water used by plants. According to the report:

“Plants generally absorb many times more water than they convert into biomass, and transpire water via the leaf surface. Pollutants such as TFA therefore accumulate in plants at much higher concentrations than in the already pre-concentrated soil water.”

Since TFA doesn’t break down in nature, it builds up more and more as it enters the water cycle, gets concentrated in plants and is consumed by people, the report said.

For instance, the study showed TFA levels at double and triple the levels observed roughly a decade ago. Other studies on vintage wines also showed a 2- to 3-fold increase in TFA over the last decade.

Organic better than conventionally grown

Scientists in 2024 identified TFA as a “global threat” because of its “irreversible accumulation” in the environment.

The new report echoed that concern, noting that TFA meets the criteria of being a “planetary boundary threat.”

The study also found that conventional products were more than three times as contaminated as organic products. Still, all organic products had over 10 μg/kg.

The TFA levels in conventional products exceeded the daily tolerable intake of TFA set by the Dutch health authorities for adults by up to 1.5 times and up to 4 times for young children.

EPA says TFA isn’t a forever chemical

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not set a TFA daily allowable human limit, an EPA spokesperson told The Defender.

E&E News reported in late 2024 that the EPA didn’t define TFA as a PFAS, or “forever chemical.”

That’s still the case, the EPA told The Defender, when asked to comment on Global 2000’s report. “EPA considers TFA to be a well-studied non-PFAS,” an EPA spokesperson said.

TFA isn’t mentioned on the EPA’s webpage, PFAS Explained. However, it’s included on the agency’s list of chemicals used in U.S. commerce under the Toxic Substances Control Act.

The EPA acknowledges that PFAS are linked to cancer, increased risk of obesity, reduced immune function, low birth weight and decreased fertility.

Burtscher-Schaden told The Defender there’s a “tradition of industry-linked scientists or so-called scientists” who argue for a narrow definition of TFA that would keep it separate from PFAS.

“As a chemist, I can say it is entirely logical to classify TFA as a PFAS,” Burtscher-Schaden said. “Chemically, it is a perfluorinated acetic acid — meaning all hydrogen atoms on the carbon chain are replaced by fluorine — and it clearly meets the structural criteria for a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance, or PFAS.”

Related articles in The Defender

• ‘Forever Chemicals’ Linked to Increased Mortality From Heart Disease, Kidney and Testicular Cancer
• PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’ Linked to Cancer, Birth Defects — And They’re Everywhere
• ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water Linked to Increased Cancer Risk
• Not Just Food and Water — PFAS Found in Kitchen Dust Too
• Prenatal Exposure to ‘Forever Chemicals’ May Be Linked to Higher Risk of Obesity in Kids

The post ‘Forever Chemical’ Found in Breads and Cereals — Even in Organic Products appeared first on Children’s Health Defense.

 

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