The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) notified the entry into the EU of three different batches of Turkish peppers which have been detected and destroyed as they greatly surpassed the permitted Maximum Residue Limit (MRL).
The RASFF also stated that this was one of the worst cases notified over the past few months. Also the United Kingdom was recently forced to destroy a batch of green beans from Kenya, as they detected a cocktail of pesticides containing, amongst other things, 31.5 times the permitted amount of Dimethoate.
The three batches contained a large content of Malathion, a powerful organophosphate-type pesticide. Two of them doubled the MRL amount permitted by the EU, with 0.04 and 0.038mgs per kilo respectively, when the limit is only 0.02mgs. The third, however, greatly surpassed the MRL, at 0.228mgs of Malathion per kilo were found, which is 14.4 times more the legal amount.
In all three cases, the importer was Bulgaria, where the entry of Turkish peppers surpassed the MRL, is becoming rather common. This is why the EU, in addition to blocking the batches, should demand changes in Turkish production methods for the import of fruits and vegetables.
Source: abc.es
Source: abc.es