(RNN) - According to laboratory tests conducted by the non-profit Environmental Working Group, Glyphosate, the active ingredient found in Roundup weed killer, has been found in several popular breakfast foods and cereals marketed to children.
EWG determined Quaker Old-Fashioned Oats, Cheerios, Quaker Dinosaur Egg Instant Oats, Great Value Instant Oats, and Back to Nature Classic Granola Clusters all had excessive levels of Glyphosate, according to its study.
The study says that the herbicide was even found in a few organic products.
Glyphosate rich Roundup is the most popular and widely used pesticide in the U.S.
Glyphosate was the chemical center of a lawsuit this week resulting in a California jury ordering a company to pay $289 million in damages to a man after he claimed the company's weed killers caused his terminal cancer.
The man said his daily exposure to large quantities of Roundup and other glyphosate-based weed killers while working as a school groundskeeper caused his illness.
The state of California lists Glyphosate as a chemical "known to the state to cause cancer."
According to reports, several scientists, doctors and activists around the world have worked to keep glyphosate out of crops.
In February, the World Health Organization was under fire by politicians who rejected its claim that the herbicide causes cancer.
“This kind of shoddy work is unacceptable from any scientific body, let alone one funded by the American taxpayer,” said Rep. Frank Lucas.
Despite the EWG’s study and the recent lawsuit, Monsanto, the company that owns Roundup weed killer maintains that "glyphosate does not cause cancer" and "has a more than 40-year history of safe use, " a report stated.
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