50% of fruits and vegetables are contaminated with dangerous pesticides

It is a challenging statement and disturbing critical analysis just published by the Consumers Association UFC- What to choose. According to a document published online on Thursday, March 24, of the 14,000 official health checks carried out on foods sold in France, more than half of the fruits and vegetables are fromintensive farming polluted dangerous pesticides. These products can be carcinogenic, have reproductive or DNA effects, or are known to cause endocrine disruption.

In detail, the study published by UFC-Que Choisir revealed that 51% of the fruits and vegetables examined contained traces of a hazardous pesticide and 30% of them showed traces of at least two hazardous pesticides.

For example, 27.4% of the grapefruits examined showed traces of pyriproxyphene, which is suspected of causing endocrine disruption and contributing to head and brain abnormalities in Brazil.

Watch out for the cherries

The foods most at risk are apples, as 80% of samples were contaminated in particular with fludioxonil (48% of samples), a fungicide suspected to cause endocrine disruption, as well as cherries, where 92% of samples show traces of dangerous pesticides Especially phosmite (47%), a Insecticide Reproductive effects are suspected by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

⋙ Launching annual monitoring of 75 pesticides in the surrounding air

To avoid these risky products, UFC-Que Choisir notes that organic foods are far less polluted than their industrial counterparts, particularly due to the ban on synthetic pesticides on these crops.

Thus only one sample out of ten in organic presents traces of hazardous pesticides versus 6 out of 10 in conventional organic green beans containing seven times less, and eight times less for apples.

In the rare cases where the products are fromOrganic Agriculture polluted, and recorded levels of pesticides are much lower than that of intensive farming.

Too lax regulatory framework

Data confirmed by the Consumers Association that welcomes the possibility that consumers who are more exposed to these particles such as pregnant women, children or adolescents may be able to consume safer products, but considers it “unacceptable to force consumers to switch to a more expensive offering, while these global findings The concern is the result of a particularly lax regulatory framework.”

⋙ The Constitutional Council challenged the non-observance of the spread distances of pesticides

Since UFC-Que Choisir also refers to health checks on fruits and vegetables that do not make it possible to guarantee that there are no risks in food, the checks only take into account the maximum limits of authorized residues while some substances can be harmful to health, even In very low doses.

In the face of this observation and the mass presence of highly hazardous pesticides in food, the Consumer Defense Association calls for the strengthening of the regulatory framework in France and Europe, in particular by reviewing licensing procedures for products in the cultivation of fruits and vegetables, through better identification of carcinogenic compounds, genetic mutations or endocrine disruptors and by immediate banning of the marketing and use of the molecules most at risk “in application of the precautionary principle”.

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