poisons in food

I did check with the search engine, but it didn't bring up previous comments that I have read here. However, according to today's Independent, fears over Sudan1 have been put in the shade by the discovery of even more damaging residues in our diet. Seems that more than 50 dangerous pesticides contaminate Britain's food, and all have been found to be poisonous or are suspected of causing cancer or having "gender bender" effects by international regulatory bodies. And do these tests correlate with tests in other countries I wonder?

At first, the comments on this forum were that they were mainly fast-food omnivore items, but some of the pesticides are found in fruit and vegetables.

They found 80 pesticides in foods ranging from apples to aubergines, butter to bread, and chocolate to chicken nuggets. Another 12 are suspected by a range of international authorities of disrupting the hormone system, causing "gender bender" effects, cancers and reproductive disorders.

I always knew they could be found in fruits and vegetables. Studies have shown they can even be found in organic fruits and vegetables although in smaller amounts.

Quote:

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link
Frequency of Positive Samples: All three data sets showed striking, highly statistically significant differences between market categories in the percent of samples that had at least one pesticide residue. Conventionally grown samples consistently had residues far more often than other categories. Overall, across 8 fruits and 12 vegetable crops, 73 percent of USDA's conventionally grown samples had residues. For five crops (apples, peaches, pears, strawberries and celery) more than 90 percent of samples had residues. Cal DPR (using less sensitive analytical methods) found residues in 31 percent, and CU found residues in 79 percent, of their conventionally grown samples. Organically grown samples consistently had far smaller percentages with residues: 23, 6.5 and 27 percent in the USDA, DPR and CU data, respectively. In the two data sets that included samples of the third category, residues were found in 47 percent of the USDA IPM/NDR samples and 51 percent of the CU IPM/NDR samples.

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Pesticides don’t disappear once they are sprayed on fruits and vegetables. Scrubbing them will not get rid of all the residues either. Pesticides have never been tested on humans here in the USA. I find that disturbing since they are readily used in farming.

The consumers union published a study a few years ago in regards pesticides in organic foods. I purchase organic food and am try to be careful of the sources I used since organic foods can be mislabeled. The FDA cannot police everyone who is an organic farmer. A farmer could be deceptive in his or her practices. I have seen a few cases over the years where a few have been fined for using the organic label and the items were laced with pesticides. It is important to know that having the ‘organic ‘label’ does not necessarily mean that the product is 100% organic. There are different types of organic labels. You can find USDA's definition of 'organic' at this link.