It is becoming increasingly more common that vegetables and fruit contain more than one crop protection agent, reports the German website derwesten.de. Food inspectors from Dortmund researched samples of fruit and vegetables and discovered that grapes contained 24 different agents. Johannes Remmel, minister for Consumer issues in North Rhine-Westphalia, announced further inspections regarding this issue.
"Around 30 percent of all the samples that were researched contained remnants of multiple crop protection agents," says Peter Baumann, expert of crop protective agents for the bureau of food safety research in Dortmund. "The percentage of residue from samples for multiple crop protective agents can be as high as 60 percent for strawberries, grapes, citrus, kale and different types of lettuce." Agents that fight moulds are found the most often. However, it is still possible for these products to be traded with little problem because the legal limits, which only apply to the individual agents, are very rarely exceeded.
Many trading chains now demand that products from their suppliers are not allowed more than three to five crop protection agents. Baumann believes that it is essential to have legally set guidelines. Politicians are still hesitant because they are unsure of how crop protective agents influence each other and if they can lead to health problems. The agricultural sector wants to wait on the outcome of an investigation by the European authority for food safety. Greenpeace proposes a precautionary maximum: vegetables and fruits may contain a maximum of 0.03 milligrams of crop protective agents. As it stands, this limit is still regularly exceeded.