In October, Japan disposed of a shipment comprising over five tons of Vietnamese durian and chili due to elevated pesticide levels surpassing the country's standards. The durian batch, weighing 1.4 tons, contained 0.03 parts per million (ppm) of procymidone, exceeding Japan's accepted level of 0.01 ppm. Similarly, the four-ton chili shipment surpassed standards with 0.2 ppm of tricyclazole and 0.03 ppm of hexaconazole against the allowable 0.01 ppm for both.
The report, provided by the commercial counsellor of Vietnam in Japan, outlined the Japanese authorities' decision to destroy the entire shipment. Procymidone, used to eliminate unwanted ferns, tricyclazole, a fungicide, and hexaconazole, employed to prevent diseases like powdery mildew, constituted the pesticides in question.
Dr. Do Van Dung, the head of the Faculty of Community Health at Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, offered insights, explaining that while these pesticides are approved in many countries and have been studied for their effects on animals, exceeding Japanese standards doesn't necessarily imply harm to Vietnamese consumers. He emphasized that such pesticides are commonly present in exported produce and that concentrations surpassing Japanese limits do not automatically pose risks to consumers in Vietnam.
Source: https://e.vnexpress.net