You are the confetti of the breakfast table. Since oatmeal was no longer called oatmeal, but porridge, oatmeal has experienced its second spring. They are easily digestible, fill you up and are demonstrably healthy thanks to the fiber they contain. However, Ökotest took a closer look at the bags and found that they not only contained crunchy oat flakes, but also sometimes mold toxins and glyphosate. Four products are so contaminated that they fail the test. First the good news for flake fans: oat flakes don’t have to be expensive or organic. “Very good” is already available for 69 cents. Also nice: Most of the 29 tested products are clean. According to the test result, more than two thirds are recommended. 17 products get the best grade, three more are “good”.
Four products, however, did not please the testers. “Insufficient” are, among other things, the cheap oatmeal from the discounter Norma, whose values for mold toxins are “problematic” according to Ökotest. In addition, the highest level of glyphosate was measured in the own-brand flakes. The corresponding batch was withdrawn from sale following the test. The tested flakes from Rewe and Aldi also failed due to the measured values. Molds are widespread in nature. Mycotoxins “can lead to various diseases in humans, promote the development of cancer, damage the kidneys and liver, impair the immune system or cause diarrhea and vomiting,” according to the Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety. The European Food Safety Authority has therefore set a daily tolerable intake level.
Ökotest based its assessment on this and calculated that an adult weighing 60 kilograms only needs to consume 40 grams of oatmeal from one of these three products in order to exceed this intake level. The testers therefore advise against eating these “insufficient” flakes on a daily basis. However, the measured loads are not acutely dangerous.
Two organic products also attracted negative attention in the test. The laboratory was able to detect the presence of the pesticide chlormequat in both the “Davert large leaf oat flakes, Bioland” and the “Wurzener organic oat flakes pithy”. Although the values were low, they were high enough to exceed the reference value of the Bundesverband Naturkost Naturwaren (BNN). Nevertheless, both products are “good” according to Ökotest.
You can read all Ökotest results for oatmeal for a fee at oekotest.de.
