03/06/2025
Glyphosate is a herbicide present in almost everything you or your dog eat. And studies suggest it can cause cancer. But how worried should you be? 🤔
Glyphosate is a herbicide applied to plant leaves. It's one of the most widely used herbicides in the USA, making it hard to avoid.
When glyphosate is sprayed onto a plant, it moves through the plant internally. This means it cannot be washed off. It also has a high thermal stability, meaning it is not destroyed by cooking.
Taken together, these factors explain how glyphosate can survive processing to end up in dog foods.
Studies suggest that high levels of glyphosate can cause health issues...
First, it seems to be connected with DNA damage, which can lead to cancer (when damaged cells replicate at speed). This is why the World Health Organisation declared it a 'probable human carcinogen' in 2015.
Second, glyphosate may also negatively impact growth and development, hormone function, the nervous system, digestive and liver health.
In toxicity studies in dogs, the highest intake of glyphosate which showed no observed adverse effects was 100mg/kg bodyweight per day. For added safety, the established acceptable daily intake for glyphosate in dogs is 100 times less than - 1mg/kg bodyweight per day.
The bad news is that, when dog foods were tested, the amount of glyphosate in them varied wildly. One study found the dog foods tested contained far less glyphosate than the acceptable level . Great news! The maximum amount found was: 0.00137mg/kg body weight per day.
However, another conflicting study found dog foods contained more than 12 times the acceptable level. Not such great news.
So what can you do if you're worried about glyphosate in your dog's food?
Two things:
1. Glyphosate is only present in plant-based ingredients. So choosing a balanced dog food with higher meat content can limit the amount of glyphosate in a recipe.
2. Since glyphosate is not permitted in organic farming, choosing an organic dog food should reduce the amount of glyphosate in a food to almost zero.
Interested? Find links to our full article on glyphosate & our top rated organic dog foods below:
https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/red-flag-ingredients/glyphosate-in-dog-food/
Best organic dog foods: https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/best-dog-foods/organic/