A viral report said Banza chickpea pasta has elevated levels of herbicide glyphosate. The company disagrees.
You’ve probably seen Banza pasta at the grocery store — bright orange box, protein-packed noodles “powered by chickpeas.” But what you might not know is that the brand has been the target of claims that its gluten-free, chickpea-based product contains toxic levels of an herbicide called glyphosate.
I know, I know: That doesn’t sound good. But what does it actually mean, and is there any truth to the social media posts popping up online charging that the pasta isn’t safe to eat? (Spoiler alert: no.) Let’s get into it.
What is glyphosate?
“Glyphosate is a widely used herbicide, commonly known under the brand name Roundup,” Jessica Crandall, registered dietitian and founder of Vital RD, tells Yahoo Life. “It is used to kill weeds and grasses that compete with crops,” in addition to drying out crops to make “the harvesting process easier and more efficient,” she says.
It is often applied to fruits and vegetable crops such as corn and beans, which includes chickpeas.
What does it have to do with Banza?
A nonprofit organization called Moms Across America (MAA) sent 46 samples of gluten-free foods to a lab to test for glyphosate and other pesticides as well as traces of gluten. One of the food samples that underwent testing was Banza’s cavatappi chickpea pasta.
MAA is a coalition that, per its Instagram bio, "educates moms about toxins in our food supply," though the group has faced scrutiny over its scientific claims and views on vaccines.
The testing was conducted by a nonprofit lab called the Health Research Institute, whose methodologies weren’t revealed.
MAA posted the lab’s findings online on June 10 and wrote that Banza chickpea pasta had the “highest levels of glyphosate” of the food tested, at 2,837.19 parts per billion.
“These levels are extremely concerning and detrimental to human health,” MAA wrote, while alleging that the use of glyphosate on crops has been associated with contributing to celiac and liver disease.
The report fueled social media content calling on people to stop eating Banza pasta. One creator accused Banza of selling “cancer pasta,” while another said the presence of glyphosate “disrupts your hormones, causes infertility, causes cancer, causes further gluten intolerance.”
What does Banza say?
The brand refuted the claims with a statement on its website which noted that Banza’s suppliers do routine glyphosate testing on the chickpeas used in their products.
“Regulatory bodies like the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration set limits for glyphosate residues in food,” says Crandall, “and Banza must comply with these standards.”
Banza states that 100% of the tests done over the past seven years “have complied with, and were below, U.S. and EU [European Union] glyphosate levels” and that “the majority of any trace glyphosate is removed from the pasta” when boiled and cooked. The brand also provided findings from an independent test that they commissioned with Eurofins days after MAA’s post. “This lab analyzed the exact same lot referenced in the social media post, using proper methodologies on cooked finished product. The results showed 0.1 parts per million, which is 97% below what was claimed in the social media post,” their statement reads.
Why does this matter?
“Claims about glyphosate levels in Banza should be approached carefully,” Chris Mohr, a registered dietitian and fitness and nutrition adviser at Fortune Recommends Health, tells Yahoo Life. “As with anything, the dose makes the poison” — meaning that, while glyphosate may indeed pose health risks at high levels, Banza pasta doesn’t meet that threshold.
The dose of glyphosate found in Banza pasta, even as initially reported by MAA, was well within the range of safe consumption. In fact, 2,837.19 parts per billion is a little more than half of the acceptable daily intake as currently defined by the European Food Safety Authority at 5,000 parts per billion (or 0.5mg/kg); 10,000 ppb is the threshold for maximum residue limits. This standard, which the FDA also follows, was recently re-evaluated by scientists and re-approved.
The findings by Banza — that the pasta as people are consuming it only has a glyphosate residue of 0.1 parts per million or 100 parts per billion — also inspired a re-examination by MAA. The second time around, the organization had the same sample of Banza pasta tested in its cooked form. “The levels went from over 2,000 parts per billion down to 161 parts per billion,” MAA director Zen Honeycutt shared in a social media post on July 18, in which she acknowledged that glyphosate appeared to “cook off.”
The takeaway:
Context matters, according to Mohr. “Brief videos on social media can leave out important details to simply catch the attention of the user,” he says. Understanding the science or even looking for reliable information from verified sources “helps avoid misinterpretations and jumping to conclusions about health and dietary choices.”
Registered dietitian Abbey Sharp used her social media platform to debunk the claims and to put the potential risks into perspective. “You would need to consume between 20 to 50 pounds of [Banza] pasta every day to even approach this already very conservative level of risk,” she said in her video. Most of the glyphosate that might enter your body comes out in your urine anyway.
Long story short: Don’t throw out your stash of Banza pasta over glyphosate concerns.
“Fear-mongering reports should not scare people away from eating perfectly safe foods,” says Mohr, who considers Banza a “safe choice for most people” provided they don’t have any allergy concerns. But if anyone does have concerns about what they’re eating, Mohr says it’s best to raise them with your doctor — not fall into a TikTok rabbit hole.
