Fruits & vegetables still have dangerous chemicals
Fruit & vegetables still contaminated with chemicals including supermarket & organic produce. No improvement since similar results shocked netizens in March.
Fruit & vegetables still contaminated with chemicals including supermarket & organic produce. No improvement since similar results shocked netizens in March.
FOOD SAFETY
Chemical contamination in fruits & vegetables: No change
7/10/2016
Post Reporters
Chemical residues have been detected in over half of the fruits and vegetables inspected by a food safety advocacy group in its latest survey.
This includes those packaged in supermarkets and products awarded with the "Q mark" for quality.
Traces of prohibited dangerous substances have also been found in 16 types of fruits and vegetables, analysed via a multi-residue pesticide screening from Aug 23 to 29.
This means that the food safety situation in Thailand for fruits and vegetables has not changed since the last tests were released in March shocked many (see here).
A vendor is doing a good business selling his fruits in Bangkok. (Bangkok Post file photo by Nittaya Nattayai)
UNSAFE CHEMICAL LEVELS IN 56% OF PRODUCE
Of 158 samples, 56% of the produce was found to have unsafe levels of chemicals
This is according to Prokchol Ousap, coordinator of the Tha Pesticide Alert Network (Thai-Pan).
Contaminated goods were found in popular wholesale markets in Pathum Thani, Nakhon Pathom and Ratchaburi and in supermarkets, according to the network.
Ms Prokchol said 70.2% of the produce from supermarkets was contaminated.
CHINESE KALE, CHILLIES, BASIL, MORNING GLORY MOST CONTAMINATED
Chinese kale topped the contaminated vegetables list with 10 out of 11 samples containing chemical residues.
Red chillies (9 of 12) came second, followed by cowpeas and basil (8 of 12), morning glory (7 of 12), small eggplant (6 of 11), cucumber (5 of 11), tomato (3 of 11), cabbage (2 of 11) and Chinese cabbage (2 of 12), according to test results.
In terms of fruit, Sai Namphueng oranges were the most worrisome as traces of chemicals were found in all eight samples.
They were followed by dragon fruit (7 of 8), guava (6 of 7), papaya (3 of 6), watermelon (3 of 7) and cantaloupe (1 of 7).
Goods with the special "Q mark" showed an even higher prevalence of contamination, 61.5%, than they did during the group's March survey, 57%.
The March results led to tension between Thai-Pan and agricultural officials.
ORGANIC VEGETABLES & FRUIT ALSO STILL CONTAMINATED
The group also said small amounts of chemical residue werealso found in 2 of 10 samples marked as "organic" by the National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards.
Officials should reform the bureau's certification process and "immediately stop its effort to push ahead with organic farm standards" until problems are solved, said Kingkorn Narintarakul Na Ayudhya, of Food4change.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1104181/fruit-and-veggies-still-contaminated
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