Moms Across America (MAA), a U.S. non-profit, has initiated an extensive testing program on the top twenty fast food brands in America, plus one restaurant, California’s In-N-Out Burger. Forty-two samples of 21 brands were tested for the most widely used herbicide in the world, glyphosate, 236 agrochemicals, 4 heavy metals, PFAS, phthalates, and mineral content. The top ten brands were additionally tested for 104 commonly used veterinary drugs and hormones, B Vitamins and calories.

 

Fast food is consumed by eighty-five million Americans each day, and many chains are often the suppliers of school lunches. Thirty million school meals are served to our children each day, and for millions of underprivileged children, these toxic meals are their only access to nutrition. MAA previous testing has shown that America’s school lunches are indeed toxic.

To further investigate the status of a major source of food and nutrition in America, Moms Across America supporters, including Children’s Health Defense, the Centner Academy, and many individual supporters, recently initiated extensive testing focused specifically on America’s most popular fast food chains to explore the potential contamination of our food supply, which is likely affecting our physical and mental health.

The Fast Food Testing program consisted of testing 42 fast food samples from 21 restaurants, the top twenty restaurants as listed by industry *QSR 50 ( highest sales).. The board of Moms Across America, primarily based in California, also insisted that In-N-Out, actually 33rd in sales on the fast food chain list, also be included due to the frequent claims that the chain is a “healthier” version of fast food.

Two types of samples, three to four meals of each type, were sent by FedEx from 21 locations across the United States in their original packaging, untouched and frozen, to the laboratory for testing. The primary lab, Health Research Institute, coordinated the testing, which was conducted using triple-quadrupole mass spectroscopy (glyphosate, pesticides, veterinary drugs, PFAS, phthalates) and several other methods.

Glyphosate Results:

• 100% of Top Twenty ( +1) Fast Food brands contained alarming glyphosate residues.
• The highest levels detected, 213.58 ppb and 225.53 ppb, totaling 439.11 in two samples, were in Panera Bread, a self-proclaimed proprietor of “good food” and “clean, wholesome foods.”
• The second highest levels of glyphosate were found in Arby’s sandwiches, 124.2 and 99 ppb, totaling 223.33 ppb of glyphosate. Dairy Queen and Little Caesar’s were nearly tied for third highest, at 126 ppb and 128 ppb total glyphosate detected, respectively.
• The lowest levels were found in Chipotle meals, totaling 4.65 ppb for both samples, a whopping 94.4 times lower than the highest level, 439.11 ppb detected in Panera Bread.

“Unfortunately, the news is not good, and the amounts of glyphosate/AMPA in the most common fast foods are shocking. This is a national health catastrophe, with glyphosate leading the charge of the daily poisoning of American citizens,”  Dr. Michelle Perro, a leading pediatrician in California, stated.

The full testing information for all the chemicals tested for can be found on the MAA website here.

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