"Our everyday food is contaminated": what the Greenpeace report on the hexane health scandal contains

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After investigative journalist Guillaume Coudray, author of the book "De l'essence dans nos assiettes" (La Découverte), released on September 18, it is the turn of Greenpeace France issued a report on Monday, September 22, warning of the hexane health scandal . This petroleum derivative is widely used as a solvent for extracting vegetable oils and is officially recognized as dangerous to consumer health.

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In its analyses of around fifty food products (oils, butter, milk, chicken), the NGO found residues of the toxic product in two-thirds of cases. Greenpeace France also accuses the agro-industrial group Avril of being one of the main culprits for the presence of these residues in the French diet .

At the end of its investigation, Greenpeace called for "a ban on hexane due to its proven health effects and in accordance with the precautionary principle," pending further research on the solvent's chronic toxicity and an update of regulatory concentration thresholds in food products. Especially since, for Christian Cravotto, a postdoctoral researcher at the industrial agro-biotechnology research and development unit at AgroParisTech, "viable solutions to hexane already exist." Here's what to remember from this report.

Hexane is not required to be listed on product packaging in stores because it is only a "processing aid." Consumers therefore have no way of knowing whether the substance was used in the manufacturing process.

However, it is a chemical that poses a health hazard to the population. The ECHA (European Chemicals Agency) considers hexane to be a category 2 CMR (carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic) substance, with suspected carcinogenic effects in humans. The ANSES (French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety) certifies its neurotoxic effects.

Hexane is also a "highly explosive and flammable" solvent that poses a threat to workers in the sector. Hundreds of serious accidents have been linked to its inhalation. were listed in the Aria ministerial database (Analysis, Research and Information on Accidents).

"Our everyday foods are contaminated with hexane!" warns Sandy Olivar Calvo, Agriculture and Food Campaigner at Greenpeace, who, along with a university analysis laboratory, tested 56 food products. The NGO is concerned about finding hexane in 36 of these products and almost systematically in oils, butter, and milk.

In the ten bottles of oils tested, concentrations ranging from 0.04 to 0.08 mg/kg were detected. This is below regulatory thresholds, but these are described as "unambitious" or even obsolete by Greenpeace and the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority).

For butter, hexane residues range from 0.02 mg/kg to 0.06 mg/kg and are found in most supermarket brands. As with chicken—in which the hydrocarbon was detected in one of nine samples—and all other animal products, there are no regulations governing the presence of solvents.

Five of the seven milks tested contained traces of hexane, likely from the oilcakes (solid residues obtained after extracting oil from seeds or oleaginous fruits) used to feed dairy cows. Greenpeace is particularly concerned about infant formulas, as no studies have been conducted on the potential effects of chronic exposure in infants.

Greenpeace has accused French agro-industrial giant Avril , which had a turnover of €7.7 billion in 2024, of being "partly responsible for the hexane health scandal." The NGO justifies this accusation by the group's dominance over the French crushing industry (an activity consisting of extracting fat from oilseed cereals), which makes it the main user of hexane for the production of foodstuffs and oilcakes for animal feed.