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Study of ‘Forever Chemical’ in European Foods Finds Highest Level in Irish Cereals
The study found TFA levels in Irish cereals at 360 µg/kg, 107 times higher than tap water, highlighting diet as a major exposure route and raising health concerns.
- On Thursday, Pesticide Action Network Europe published the first EU-level study analysing 66 conventional cereal and bakery products across 16 European countries, finding the highest trifluoroacetic acid level in an Irish breakfast cereal.
- PFAS-Containing pesticides degrade into trifluoroacetic acid , and Ireland faces particular exposure due to widespread use of fluorinated herbicides on cereal fields, permanent grassland, silage, and public sites.
- The study found an average TFA level of 78.9 µg/kg, with food concentrations 107 times higher than tap water; industry sources link TFA to reduced sperm quality and thyroid, liver, and immune effects.
- PAN urged regulators to act immediately, calling on European regulators to set a far more protective TFA safety limit and ban all PFAS pesticides and other TFA sources.
- The research involved a European NGO network including Friends of the Irish Environment, which reported trifluoroacetic acid accumulates in water and soils, is absorbed by plants like wheat, and contaminates drinking water.
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13 Articles
13 Articles
According to environmentalists, semmels, noodles, breakfast flakes, biscuits – products that land on Europe's plates every day are contaminated with a potentially toxic chemical. The substance trifluoroacetate (TFA), an extremely durable degradation product from certain plant protection products, has been detected in a variety of cereal products from all over Europe – partly in significantly higher quantities than in drinking water. The environm…
·Vienna, Austria
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According to Global 2000, the chemical comes mainly from plant protection products. The organisation calls for a ban on such pesticides.
·Vienna, Austria
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