General Mills “Loaded” Cereal is Loaded with Dangerous Levels of Toxins

New testing reveals that General Mills’ new Trix brand, “LOADED” cereal, contains high levels of toxic heavy metals and agrochemicals.

• Levels of toxic heavy metals arsenic and cadmium present in two samples of Loaded Trix flavor were 200-400% higher than EPA allowable levels in drinking water.
• Aluminum levels were as high as 3500 ppb, making Trix Loaded cereal a toxic way to start the day according to EU standards, if eaten daily. Aluminum levels were 1,365% and 1,650% higher than the EPA maximum allowable level in drinking water
• Glyphosate levels were 15.83 and 17.47 ppb, 158-174X times higher than has been shown to cause sex hormone changes and organ damage in animal studies when they consumed .1 ppb of glyphosate herbicide.
• Trace levels or higher of 8 pesticides were detected, including Fluopyram-1 a fungicide that has been shown to cause endocrine disruption in humans and wildlife at low levels.
• Piperonyl butoxide - an ingredient used in shampoo to facilitate the killing of lice was detected in Loaded cereal.

We are asking you to contact your elected officials and ask them to regulate the food supply so that products like this don’t make it to market. Moms Across America director Zen Honeycutt states, “These test results show it is high time that cereal manufacturers such as General Mills make better choices in sourcing cleaner ingredients. These toxins, present in cereal marketed to parents and children, as containing vitamins (implying a healthy choice) are unconscionable and obviously highly unhealthy. What we need is cereal loaded with nutrition and free from toxins.”

Starting the Day with Heavy Metals is Huge Health Risk

Heavy metals are widely acknowledged by physicians and regulatory agencies to induce neurotoxicity (potentially causing damage) developmental delays, inability to function, and cancer. Many exposed to heavy metals experience permanent life long damage and lose their ability to live independently.

In America, 1 out of 6 children have learning disabilities. This was not the case a generation or two ago. Currently, Moms Across America supporters are reporting extremely concerning levels of autism and developmental delays. “In my preschool class of 13 children, 12 are on the autism spectrum,” shared one concerned teacher. She described how, after eating highly processed foods, she saw notable differences in the children’s behavior, turning erratic, emotionally uncontrollable, and aggressive. Teaching children to learn has become an insurmountable task for most teachers.

Moms Across America is committed to get to the source of the altered behavior and inability to learn, to protect our community’s children and support a prosperous future for our country and world superpower. Food containing neurotoxins and carcinogens are counterproductive to supporting a prosperous future.

While marketed to contain important vitamins, Trix LOADED cereal comes with additional risks that are not on the label and are not, in Moms Across America’s opinion, worth the risk. We feel it is crucial that the general public is aware of these risks. Parents must be able to make a choice based on the reality of the ingredients, and manufacturers must be responsible for the safety of their products. Regulatory agencies must hold the manufacturers responsible for confirmed toxic ingredient load.

So what are the regulatory agencies saying about consumption of heavy metals?

The United States does not consistently regulate the presence of heavy metals in food. Nor do they assess accumulation and long-term toxic effects on children. The EPA does have regulations for heavy metals levels in water, and the levels found in cereals exceed the allowable levels in water by 17 - 400%.

EPA limits for heavy metals in water

• Aluminum levels were 1,365% and 1,650% higher than the EPA maximum allowable level in drinking water.

• Arsenic levels detected were 200% higher than EPA allowable levels in water.
• Cadmium levels detected were 400% higher than EPA allowable levels in water.

According to Dr. Michelle Perro, MD and CEO of www.gmoscience.org, the EPA in 1976 passed the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which provided their organization authority to require reporting, record-keeping, testing requirements, and restrictions relating to chemical substances and mixtures. Certain substances are generally excluded from TSCA, including food, drugs, cosmetics, and pesticides. However, heavy metals are not excluded. Based on the EPAs position, heavy-metal-containing foods as detected in Trix Loaded, must be banned since they pose an unreasonable risk to health.

As clearly outlined by Zen Honeycutt above, children are at an extreme risk from the toxicity even more so than adults. The elements’ harmful effects include neurocognitive and behavioral disorders, respiratory issues, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Chronic diseases associated with aluminum exposure include aluminosis and dialysis encephalopathy syndrome, as well as conditions connected with aluminum exposure, such as Alzheimer's disease and breast cancer.

Aluminum:

The European Union (EU) Safe Consumption level for aluminum is 1 mg/kg bw/week.

If a child eats an average portion (40 g) of Trix Loaded cereal daily, the weekly consumption of aluminum would be 0.98 mg/week with sample S11429 and 0.82 mg/week for sample 11426. These are both equal to 1 mg* when sampling error and analytical error are taken into consideration. Thus these cereals are delivering toxic levels of aluminum to the children who eat them.

*Computational correction 3/27/2024: While true that a child consuming 40 grams a cereal will get over 1 milligram of aluminum per week, the EU TWI (tolerable weekly intake) standard on based on 1 milligram per kilogram of body weight. Therefore the weekly intake could be below EU TWI if no other aluminum is consumed from any other source (highly unlikely) and the portions are not doubled.

The official EU safety threshold is considered by many authorities to be excessively high, therefore the risk from aluminum from eating this cereal is likely much greater than this calculation reveals. This risk also does not include daily exposure to heavy metals from any other food consumption as is likely to be found in canned food, aluminum pouch soft food and juices.

Dr. Christopher Exeley a renowned scientist and aluminum expert, has stated:
”Severe, debilitating autism is a consequence of brain damage. Damage to the brain is invariably inflicted during the first months of an infant’s life. In rarer cases the damage may originate in the womb. Susceptibility to brain damage will be significantly influenced by genetic factors. However, as in Alzheimer’s in later life, toxins are responsible for brain damage in infants leading to autism. The leading toxic candidate to date is aluminum.“

Reported studies have shown that ingestion and exposure to high aluminum levels can result in serious health problems (Barabasz et al. 2002). Recently, aluminum has been linked to many human diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (Mold et al. 2019a; Mold et al. 2019b; Mold et al. 2020). Epidemiological data is reinforced by indications that aluminum exposure can result in excess inflammatory activity within the brain. Activation of the immune system not initiated by an infectious agent, typifies the aging brain and is even more augmented in several neurodegenerative diseases.

Although some sources of food contain aluminum naturally, most of what we eat contains aluminum as food additives. Processed dairy products, mainly processed cheese, breakfast cereals, flour, cake, biscuit, baking powder, coffee, milk powder, table salts, bread, rice, and soft drinks, are all examples of food that are high in aluminum additives (Mohammad et al. 2014; Mold et al. 2019b).

Exposure to heavy metals is imminent in the standard American diet. Testing has shown that rice is often contaminated with arsenic, animal products like meat and lead contain lead, root vegetables contain cadmium, and food containing water which may be contaminated with heavy metals due to agrochemical farming irrigation run off.

Daily exposure to heavy metals is contributing to an epidemic of brain damaged children who are incapable of living up to their fullest potential and are dependent on pharmaceuticals and parental support. A society which has an entire generation of compromised children will be incapable of thriving. It is a matter of national homeland security to address the level of heavy metals in the food supply.

Eight Pesticides Detected in Trix LOADED cereal

Eight different pesticides were detected in Trix flavored LOADED cereal. Moms Across America is concerned not only about the presence of these pesticides individually, but collectively as well. The EPA does not require any synergistic testing to assess the impact of the combination of different chemicals, which at even trace amounts, could have chemical reactions to each other that alter the organ function of the consumer.

The two pesticides that did have detectable levels have concerning potential side effects.

1. Fluopyram-1 a fungicide that has been shown to cause endocrine disruption in humans and wildlife at low levels.
2. Piperonyl butoxide (PBO) - an ingredient used in shampoo to facilitate the killing of lice was detected in Loaded cereal. While it does not kill pests directly, it is used in agrochemical farming to increase the effectiveness of other pesticides.

The National Pesticide Information Center reports: In one study, pregnant rats were fed a single high to very high dose of PBO for two days. At the highest dose, pregnant rats gained less weight and lost more pregnancies than normal. At the highest two doses, some offspring weighed less than normal or had an unusual number of fingers and toes that were sometimes fused. In another study, rats were fed low to high doses of PBO for two generations to see if there were reproductive effects. Both adults and offspring had reduced weights at only the highest dose.

Glyphosate herbicide detected in Trix, Loaded cereal

Glyphosate was also found in the Trix, Loaded cereal at 15.83 and 17.47 ppb.

See full test results here.

Glyphosate contamination is fairly common on wheat products due to glyphosate being used as a pre-harvest weed killer or as a drying agent. Glyphosate has also been detected in dairy products. Trix loaded cereal contains both.

See Glyphosate/AMPA test results here.

Any level of glyphosate is unsafe. Studies show levels of .1 ppb of glyphosate herbicide contributes to sex hormone changes and organ damage, and 1 ppt increases breast cancer cell growth. Due to its ability to pass through the blood brain barrier and cause organ damage, glyphosate has also been shown to increase the harmful impact of environmental toxins. Therefore the presence of glyphosate in Trix Loaded cereal, in addition to heavy metals results in an increased risk of harm to children and consumers.

Glyphosate has also been shown to cause harm to 93% of endangered species and to 96% of their critical habitats. Glyphosate has a harmful impact on every living thing it touches except for the crops like soy, corn and canola that are genetically engineered to withstand it.

Many weeds grown in the fields of these commodity crops, however, are developing a resistance to glyphosate, and 37 super weeds are now impervious to the effects of glyphosate despite numerous sprayings. This causes serious detrimental effects on the yield and profitability of farmers, who are compelled to then use other toxic chemicals to compensate. There is no longer a foreseeable benefit to the chemical cocktail of agrochemicals, which chemical companies are pushing on society. Their business model is merely trapping farmers on a toxic treadmill creating high profits for the companies, poor soil quality, and health risks for the farmers, and of course, sickness, developmental delays, and death for consumers.

Moms Across America calls on manufacturers such as General Mills to be responsible, despite the lack of laws and regulations, for choosing suppliers who use safe, non toxic ingredients.

Until then, Moms Across America recommends that consumers choose organic food and food that has been shown to not be contaminated with agrochemicals and heavy metals. Because some organic food has also been shown to be contaminated with heavy metals, it is almost impossible for the consumer to know which foods are actually safe. While most conventional foods can be expected to contain toxins, more testing is needed to determine which organic foods are not contaminated.

We invite you to contact your elected officials to pass policy which protects consumers from the presence of heavy metals in the food supply and support a transition to regenerative organic farming which is a healthy, non toxic solution to the agrochemical farming disaster on human, soil, marine, and wildlife health.

Tell our elected officials that the future of our children and the security of our country depends on nationwide access, regardless of our socio economic status, to safe, nutrient dense, non toxic food.