Supermarket produce in three Thailand provinces contaminated
The Thai-Pesticide Alert Network (Thai-Pan), a food advocacy group, has recently revealed that 16 types of fruits and vegetables from Thailand have been found with traces of prohibited and dangerous chemicals after a regular pesticide screening that was done on August.The contaminated products were found in the supermarkets from three provinces in Thailand – Pathum Thani, Nakhon Pathom and Ratchaburi.
The group also warned that 70.2% of the fruits and vegetables found in Thailand’s supermarkets were contaminated with unsafe levels of pesticide.
Even produce with the Q-Mark certification, which is 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% in the latest inspection, compared to 57% in a March survey by Thai-Pan.
In addition, two 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% of 158 produce samples had unsafe levels of chemicals.
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 chilies (9 of 12), cow peas 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).
