A regular pesticide screening of 16 types of fruits and vegetables from Thailand in August has found traces of prohibited and dangerous chemicals, a food safety advocacy group revealed on Oct 6.
The Thai-Pesticide Alert Network (Thai-Pan) also warned that 70.2 per cent of the fruits and vegetables found in Thailand’s supermarkets were contaminated with unsafe levels of pesticide.
Ironically, produce with the Q-Mark certification – a voluntary food safety label introduced by the Thai government in 2005 – were also found to have unhealthy levels of chemicals.
In fact, contamination of ‘Q-Mark’ products increased to 61.5 per cent in the latest inspection, compared to 57 per cent in a March survey by Thai-Pan.
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2 in 10 of the samples certified as organic by the Thai government also had small traces of pesticide residue.
Prokchol Ousap, coordinator of Thai-Pan, said that 56 per cent of 158 produce samples had unsafe levels of chemicals, The Bangkok Post reported.
The most contaminated vegetable is Chinese kale, with 10 out of 11 samples failing the test, while all 8 samples of Sai Namphueng oranges had unsafe levels of pesticide.
Other contaminated vegetables on the list include red chillies (9 of 12), cowpeas and basil (8 of 12), morning glory (7 of 12), small eggplant (6 of 11), cucumbers (5 of 11), tomatoes (3 of 11), cabbage (2 of 11) and Chinese cabbage (2 of 12) .
Besides Sai Namphueng oranges, other fruits to avoid include dragon fruit (7 of 8), guava (6 of 7), papaya (3 of 6), watermelon (3 of 7) and cantaloupe (1 of 7).
These contaminated products were found in the supermarkets from three provinces in Thailand – Pathum Thani, Nakhon Pathom and Ratchaburi.
grongloh@sph.com.sg
