Sabinsa begins offering customers glyphosate test results for nutraceutical ingredients

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Sabinsa (East Windsor, NJ) is offering glyphosate test results to customers. In October Sabinsa began testing for residual herbicide in 20 nutraceutical ingredients as a routine practice, along with all other USP listed pesticides. This will eventually expand to the rest of Sabinsa's product range. Spices must be below 7 ppm and herbs below 0.2 ppm. Although glyphosate is a popular herbacide, its use has become controversial. Organizations such as the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research of Cancer has said it is carcinogenic to humans, and multi-million-dollar settlements have been issued for those with cancer found to be from exposure to the material. 

Sabinsa analyses glyphosate and its major metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA). The total of these two is reported as glyphosate. Glyphosate rapidly gets converted to AMPA after absorption in soil, which is why Sabinsa’s scientists decided to monitor AMPA in addition to glyphosate.

“The method development of these products is very challenging and time consuming, requiring skilled techniques,” said Sabinsa founder and chairman Muhammed Majeed, PhD, in a press release. “Given Sabinsa’s mission to improve human health, confirming purity of the materials we sell makes sense.”