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Every lot of Tested Clean certified foods is tested for more than 220 different toxic pesticides, including glyphosate, chlorpyrifos, paraquat, and many neonicotinoids. We test to less than 10 nanograms per gram of any pesticide, this is the gold standard in the market.

The Tested Clean certification assures you that every product has been rigorously tested and verified safe for consumption. The Tested Clean seal builds trust and indicates the company has taken all possible steps to control and eliminate pesticide contamination. Tested Clean sets a new standard for organic products.

How is Tested Clean different from USDA organic?

Broadest Test Set 220 + Chemicals - Certified products are tested for more than 220 different toxic pesticides, including glyphosate, chlorpyrifos, paraquat, and many neonicotinoids.

Continuously Testing - We test every single lot of certified products, not just once and done like other certifications.

Test Sensitivity - We test with 10 to 100 times greater sensitivity than most tests carried out in government and industry labs.

Randomized Spot Checks - We randomly spot check all certified products direct from supermarket shelves for blind testing.

Extremely High Benchmarks - We test to less than 10 nanograms per gram of any pesticide, this is the gold standard in the market.

Do current EPA Thresholds protect your health?

The suffix “-cides” in the word “pesticides” discloses that the purpose of these compounds is to kill a living thing, something considered a pest. Pesticides are toxic to some form of life. Pesticides are ubiquitous and central to the industrial-chemical agricultural system. That approach is built on the principle that it is OK to put toxic chemicals on our food.

Regulators around the world have set thresholds for what they consider “safe levels” of pesticides in foods. For each of these pesticides agencies around the world set thresholds that imply that levels of a pesticide below that threshold is safe to consume.

Agency Name of Threshold
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the US Chronic Reference Dose (cRfD)
Environmental Health Hazzard Assessment (OEHHA) in California No Significant Risk Level (NSRL)
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI)

All of three of these organizations imply that their thresholds indicate safety, but, if you look carefully at the definitions and at the science, behind the EPA and EFSA thresholds, these agencies have been careful not to make a straightforward claim that their thresholds indicate safety. In reality they are regulation-based thresholds that have been strongly influenced by commercial/industry considerations. Only the California NSRL threshold refers directly to risk and therefore is a frank safety claim, however, it would be more accurate to call that threshold the “Reduced Risk Level”.

The EPA has approved roughly 34,000 different pesticides, and around the world even more are in use. To understand these pesticide “risk” classification systems we will closely consider one pesticide, glyphosate as an example to view in more detail. However, this analysis is relevant to virtually every one of the 34,000 pesticides on the market.

Each agency has a different daily glyphosate threshold. The US EPA has the highest at 140mg. In contrast, the European Food Safety Authority sets the “safety level” at 1/4 the level of the US EPA. California has an even more stringent threshold; their threshold is 1/127th that of the EPA.

Authority Limit ug / kg body weight /day Limit for 150 lb person
US EPA 2000 140mg
EU Food Safety Authority 500 35mg
OEHHA — California Prop 65 16 1.1mg
Tested Clean / Health Research Institute 0.16 0.011mg
Study on Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease 0.01 0.0007mg

Clearly there is significant confusion among regulators regarding what levels of glyphosate are safe. Are factors other than science influencing regulators’ decisions?

Typically, government regulators base their risk analysis and decisions on early research, often done by the company that is applying for approval of their pesticide. Often that research has not been published and peer-reviewed and, quite often, that research is classified as confidential business information and is not available for scrutiny by independent scientists or other private citizens. Although California is a notable exception.

Moreover, there may be other limitations. For instance, California’s Prop 65 focuses only on cancer risk, yet there are many other dangerous health impacts from pesticides. The California Prop 65 threshold is calculated to reduce cancer risk of glyphosate to 1 case in 100,000 population. For California with a population about 39.6 million, that threshold accepts as “safe”, 396 people to contract glyphosate-induced cancer per year!

Find Out More About Pesticides

Using California’s Prop 65 glyphosate threshold 3300 Americans contract cancer every year!

Another issue is that this level does not consider the fact that all California residents are not healthy adults. There is a significant sub-population of vulnerable individuals, young children, pregnant women, the elderly, the immunocompromised, those with weakened liver or kidney function, etc.

Based on careful analysis of the scientific literature, the Health Research Institute suggests that the safety threshold should be set at 11 μg/kg body weight/day. Tested Clean has adopted the Health Research Institute’s threshold which is 100-fold lower than California’s Prop 65 threshold. Operating to the Tested Clean threshold would reduce US cancer cases from 3300 down to 33 per year.

Cancer Cases Every Year Caused By Glyphosate Consumption

Population Pop 65 Threshold
1 per 100,000
Tested Clean Threshold
1 per 10,000,000
California 39.6 million 396 4
United States 330 million 3300 33

Reducing glyphosate intake to the Tested Clean threshold assures protection of the vulnerable. We suggest this to be a more reasonable safety threshold, based on the research results used by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.

However, the most up-to-date research on glyphosate toxicity, suggests that in-depth research is likely to push the safety threshold for glyphosate even lower than the Tested Clean Safety Threshold. A recent animal study found that exposure to even the lowest level of glyphosate (0.01 μg/kg body weight/day) caused early stages of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

Glyphosate and other herbicides, insecticides and other kinds of pesticides are toxins. The ideal is to avoid any and all toxins in our food. The ubiquitous use of these chemicals in our agricultural system makes it virtually impossible to completely avoid such toxins. However, we can adopt the Tested Clean Safety Threshold, as a practical standard for minimizing the risk for glyphosate contamination of foods. That gives us a goal—to keep the level of glyphosate in our daily diet below 11 μg per day.

Below, you will find a table that outlines the various official thresholds presented in the graph.

Recommended Daily Limit For 150lb Person

Have you checked your glyphosate levels?

See how much glyphosate is in your diet by ordering a home test kit from our friends at the Health Research Institute.
Order a Test Kit

Pesticides are harming your health & the environment

If sustainability and healthy living matter to you and your family, buying organic foods may not be enough. While organic growers often commit to limiting pesticides, they can—and often do—still use certain pesticides permitted under mainstream standards, including USDA. 



Most people are exposed to pesticide residues through their diets which can negatively impact health. Agricultural pesticides are also contributing to our growing crisis in soil health.
Learn More About the Impact of Glyphosate

Create change and protect your health at the same time

Laws, regulation and treaties haven’t solved the climate crisis, but creating widespread market demand for drawdown agricultural products, for regenerative organic can.

By sharing scientific evidence with you, we drive market demand for organic foods that can only be produced through regenerative practices that protect our planet’s future.

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Contact us: info@testedclean.org Site by Lucky Tiger
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