At first sight, the 2017 report by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on official national checks of pesticide residues in foods, published on Tuesday 11 April, is reassuring, but EFSA has once again ignored the toxic cocktail effect of these chemical residues, regretted Greenpeace the same day.
The technical report shows that 97.2% of the 84,341 samples analysed in 2015 were free of quantifiable residues or contained residues within the legally permitted levels (LPLs) under Regulation (EU) No 396/2005. However, an average of close to 220 pesticides per sample were found and residues of multiple pesticides were found in all food categories tested and in 28% of samples overall.
The report brings together the information provided by the EU member states in addition to Iceland and Norway within the context of the European scheme to monitor pesticide residues present in the main products for human and animal consumption and analyses the risks for consumers associated with exposure to these residues. Included in the testing were 1,063 samples of fresh fruit, vegetables and vegetable products, 64 samples of products such as cereals, 897 samples of processed products, 710 samples of animal products and 87 samples of other products. Of this total, 91 samples of baby foods were analysed.
Among the unprocessed products, it is in hops, in some soft fruits (gooseberries, currants, limes, rocket, table grapes, grapefruits, strawberries, mandarins, and blackberries) and lamb’s lettuce that the highest occurrence of multiple pesticide residues was found. In processed products, the highest occurrence was found in samples of mushrooms, processed grapes (e.g. raisins), peppers (e.g. paprika powder), wine grapes, vine leaves, processed apricots and potatoes (e.g. chips). And that is precisely what concerns Greenpeace.
“The fact that so many samples contain more than one pesticide is a cause for concern and an indication that current regulation – based on the control of single pesticides – does not adequately protect people. We are all exposed to a cocktail of pesticides, rather than to single substances, and the toxicology of mixtures remains poorly understood”, said Paul Johnston, Head of Greenpeace Science Unit, in a press release.
PAN (Pesticide Action Network) Europe, an NGO which campaigns for sustainable pesticides, made exactly the same complaint on publication in October 2016 of the EFSA report on food samples tested in 2014 as part of European monitoring (see EUROPE 11656).
The report is available online at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/sp.efsa.2017.EN-1211/pdf;jsessionid=F092CD816BBB426C192871014FCA82A4.f03t03 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)