No, Really, You Don’t Have To Worry About “Toxic” Girl Scout Cookies

You may have seen it on social media or heard it when you cued up the latest episode of your favorite podcast. Girl Scout Cookies, they declare, our most beloved seasonal treats, are positively riddled with toxins. Heavy metals! Pesticides! So much so that there’s even a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the Girl Scouts of America for damages. It’s all very shocking and scary... which in the modern media landscape is usually a good way to know it’s time to take a moment, take a breath, and read beyond the headlines.

So what happened?

A study purports to have found heavy metals & herbicide in Girl Scout cookies

The study, cosponsored by two consumer groups — GMOScience and Moms Across America — sought to “promote awareness and positive change for health.” The results, they said, were “extremely concerning.” Out of 25 samples taken from across the country (California, Louisiana, and Iowa). Cookies were found to contain glyphosate — an herbicide used to control weeds in commercial, non-organic farming — and heavy metals (aluminum, lead, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic).

The findings have been shared — as mentioned — across social media and have been discussed on the wildly popular The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. They have even prompted a class action lawsuit, filed in New York, seeking $5 million in damages.

“While the entire sales practice system for Girl Scout Cookies is built on a foundation of ethics and teaching young girls sustainable business practices,” the suit reads, “defendants failed to uphold this standard themselves.”

Multiple experts have cast doubt on the study’s conclusions

We’ll dive into specific points here, but the general idea here is twofold.

• One: there are multiple methodological issues fact-checking sites like PolitiFact and Snopes have pointed out that might mitigate the study’s findings. In addition to being a very small study (again, 25 samples), there does not appear to have been any kind of control group and the results have not been peer reviewed. Moreover, Snopes observed inconsistencies with the results of the testing and what was reported in the report itself.
• Two: specific concerns about individual contaminants must be put into context.

“The dose makes the poison”

Pretty much anything can be dangerous at high enough doses, and some not as high as you might think —Tylenol (acetaminophen), soy sauce, even too much water can kill you. But in smaller doses they’re safe, helpful, delicious, and/or necessary for life.

Glyphosate, one of the substances found in Girl Scout cookies, is a ubiquitous herbicide used in commercial farming. So much so that traces can even be found in organic products, which do not use glyphosate. These traces, it should be noted, are far lower than those found in non-organic foods.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notes that trace amounts of this chemical can be found throughout the food system, including on fresh fruits, vegetables, cereals, and a slew of other consumer products, from unprocessed to ultra-processed foods. “However,” the agency notes, “these trace amounts are not of concern for the consumer.”

And indeed, the GMOScience study found trace amounts all well within levels deemed acceptable by the FDA, which range from 0.1 to 400 parts per million(ppm) depending on the food. The highest level found was found in a Thin Mint: 111 parts per billion(ppb), which comes out to .111ppm.

OK, you might say, but what does this all mean?

Dr. Jess Steier, a public health scientist and host of the Unbiased Science podcast, put these numbers in a real-life context: a 66-pound child would have to consume more than 9,000 cookies in a single day to exceed levels of glyphosate deemed safe by regulatory agencies. To be sure, one can eat an impressive amount of Thin Mints in one sitting, but 9,000 feels well beyond even that upper limit.

But what about the heavy metals?

Once again, all levels of lead, arsenic, mercury, and cadmium were well below anything deemed potentially dangerous by the FDA — from as low as .07 ppb of mercury to as “high” as 42.5 ppb of lead — and were generally on par with what one would find in any foods, including organic fruits and vegetables. That’s because all of these heavy metals are naturally occurring.

That’s not to say they’re good for you. Contaminants from pollution can increase the presence of these elements in the soil to dangerous levels. But the fact is that even breast milk has traces of all three of these heavy metals as well.

Another heavy metal listed in the study from GMOScience was aluminum: a substance the FDA does not even consider a food contaminant as it is the third most common element in the Earth’s crust. As such, you’re going to find it in any food with an ingredient that was once in the ground.

The Girl Scouts have defended their products

The Girl Scouts responded to the study with a post on their blog.

“The cookie program teaches valuable life skills like goal setting, decision making, people skills, money management, and business ethics ensuring that girls can become leaders in their communities,” it says in part. “The health and safety of Girl Scouts and cookie customers is our top priority. Rest assured: Girl Scout Cookies are safe to consume. ... Girl Scout Cookies are made with ingredients that adhere to food safety standards set by the FDA and other relevant authorities.”

Tl;dr

While a little wobbly on some of the details, the findings of this extremely small, limited, and not peer-reviewed study comport with the levels of heavy metals and herbicide one would expect to find in foods made with plant-based ingredients. But the conclusions do not comport with food safety standards in any way that serves as cause for concern.

It’s never a bad idea to ask questions, look deeper, and think critically about the things we take for granted. But it’s just as important to know how to put the answers we receive in context.