Imports from Asian shops partly have too many residues of plant protection means. In the Swiss town of Basel research was done on this and more than one third of the tested samples was rejected . Half of the 32 samples came from Thailand, one quarter from Vietnam. Various vegetable varieties, such as water spinach, okra, beans, paksoi and sopropo were tested. In twelve of the samples (38%) the maximum allowed quantity was exceeded. Only one quarter of the samples was free of plant protection means. With the other samples too large a quantity of sometimes three means was found. In total 39 different working means of plant protection were identified on the vegetables. On Thai celery and Indian curry leaves the greatest diversity of different means were found with a total of 9 varieties. Carbendazim was of the highest quanitity found on 9 samples. With 2 of the 9 the value was too high. The situation represents a slight improvement on findings from last year when the same research was carried out and 50% of the samples had more plant protection means than the maximum values allowed. But the present value of 38% is still unacceptably high. With European vegetables this is on average only about 6% percent. The importers who were deficient (often shop owners) have received warnings and the authorities have been informed .
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