Currants not harmful to health?

Currants and raspberries are harmless to health? The Federal Office of Consumer Protection gives the all-clear, Greenpeace continues to hold it, pesticide cocktails can be hazardous to health.

(29.07.2010) The environmental organization "Greenpeace" had warned against residues of pesticides in currants. There is a health risk to the consumer when eating the berries. The Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) in Braunschweig rejected the warning that there was supposedly no danger for consumers. "Currants and raspberries pose no health risks," said the Federal Office.

The environmentalists had examined 31 samples of currants and raspberries from German supermarkets in a test series. Many different pesticides were found. Greenpeace warned against berry consumption, and some samples even found illegal pesticides. However, the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety rejected the warning that none of the 31 samples exceeded the highest level of pesticide residues. For the Federal Office is thus clear that there are no health concerns. The reference to "pesticides without EU approval" was factually incorrect. All 21 chemical substances that were detectable in the berry samples are permitted in plant protection products in the EU. 18 substances have been added to the EU-wide positive list, while the remaining three have transitional periods.

The Federal Office also called the statement "currants from Germany" questionable „contain illegal agricultural poisons dodin and difenoconazole "because the chemical substances are approved in Germany, however, the active ingredients were not used in the cultivation of currants, but in other fruit varieties.The environmentalists had found these pesticides in currants and argue, an application of the corresponding pesticides However, the Federal Office is assuming that the residues could have other causes, because the proven concentrations were very low at 0.03 and 0.07 mg / kg respectively However, it was irrelevant whether the fruit grower may have infringed the rules, because the residues were due to "drifting" from neighboring orchards „Dodin“ and „difenoconazole“ would be below the maximum permitted level of 0.2 mg / kg and would be "safe for health".

Greenpeace confirms its assessment that pesticide cocktails can be harmful to health. There are still no sustainable studies that conclusively assess the actual dangers of pesticide cocktails. According to the environmental organization, there is a legal loophole here. In addition, Greenpeace had never claimed that the limits were exceeded, but pointed out that here the "sum of the active ingredients" trigger the potential danger.

The fact that a gap in the legal regulations is present, had also confirmed the Hamburg food control already in the comment of the Greenpeace-Salattests last winter 2009. The Food Surveillance considered such a cumulative assessment to be valid for samples found to contain several pesticides.

The current currants tests also found two illegal pesticides. „Dodin“ and „difenoconazole“ have no approval for use in currants that are produced in Germany. Nevertheless, both pesticides were found on currants of German origin. The Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety has confirmed that both active substances are inadmissible for currants produced in Germany. Now the food control of the federal states is tracking the goods back to the producer and is investigating further. (sb, gr)

Also read:
Currants contaminated with pesticides
Warning of slimming products
Website of Greenpeace

Picture: JMG