Here are the vegetables you should not touch in supermarkets.
More precisely, 3,278 samples of vegetables, fruits and cereals were analyzed in Romania, in 2022, for the detection of pesticide residues. The official results show that tomatoes and greens are the most affected, writes Profit.ro.
The most toxic vegetables
The samples were taken from domestic production and researched in Bucharest, within the Laboratory for the Control of Pesticide Residues in Plants and Vegetable Products (LCRPPPV), and in Târgu Mureș, within the Regional Laboratory for the Control of Pesticide Residues in Plants and Vegetable Products (LRCPPV ), units subordinate to the National Phytosanitary Authority.
The laboratory in Bucharest analyzed 1,349 vegetable samples, 384 fruit samples and 32 cereal samples, as part of the annual national plan, and 317 vegetable samples, 212 fruit samples and 32 cereal samples, on request.
Thus, among the 1,349 samples, 377 (27.95 %) had pesticide residues: 359 samples with traces of pesticides below the maximum allowed limit (MLA), considered good for consumption, and 18 non-compliant samples, with residues above the LMA ( four samples of green onions, three samples of lettuce, three samples of leafy parsley, two of dill, two of green garlic, one of garlic, one of pepper, one of spinach and one of tomato).
These samples were non-compliant regarding the content of carbendazim (as a metabolite of thiophanate – methyl), thiophanate – methyl, chlormequat chloride, chlorothalonil, chlorpyrifos, clothianidin, dimethoate, fenhexamid, imidacloprid, linuron, penconazole, pirimiphos methyl, propyzamide, tau-fluvaminate.
So, the most numerous samples of vegetables with pesticide residues (below or above the MLA), so the ones you should avoid, were those of: leustea (19 out of 28, percent 68%), lettuce (48 out of 78, percent 62%), kale (1 of 2, percent 50%), leafy parsley (18 of 38, percent 47%) and tomatoes (167 of 380, percent 44%).
The laboratory in Târgu Mureș obtained similar results. The most numerous samples with traces of pesticides were those of: leustea (13 out of 17, percentage 76.47%, lettuce (31 out of 41, percentage 75.61%), tomatoes (85 out of 152, percentage 55.92%) , dill (6 out of 11, percentage 54.55%).
