A less ecological product than it seems. 60 million consumers warn about the “worrying” amount of pesticides present in packaged salads. A ready-to-eat salad that the French like: almost seven out of ten households buy it, according to the specialized magazine.
60 Million consumers carried out a study on 26 references of packaged salads, 13 lettuces and 13 lamb’s lettuces (conventional and organic), in order to “quantify the pesticides present.” Result: only five of these products are free of contamination, two lettuce and three lamb’s lettuce.
Other salads contain an average of 3.8 pesticide residues each. And up to 28 different molecules have been identified, including eight suspected by the European Chemicals Agency of having a “carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction” action. These molecules, called “CMR”, may be banned by this European authority or restricted to very specific uses.
Fear of the “cocktail” effect
“In total, eleven lettuces contain one or more potentially CMR pesticide residues,” states 60 Million Consumers.
If the quantities found are regulatory (there would therefore be no health risks), scientists are alert about the “cocktail” effect that these numerous molecules can have among themselves. An effect that escapes their knowledge.
In addition to CMR molecules, all lettuces studied contain pesticides, which pose little or no risk. “The worst results, Aldi and Top Budget, have up to nine residues in the same salad,” the study highlights.
Regarding chewing, the “suspicious CMR molecules” are present in four products: Bonduelle, Saint Eloi, U and Carrefour bio.
“A lot of work to avoid phytosanitary treatments”
In the case of this last salad, the contamination is “fortuitous”, according to a journalist from the magazine, Patricia Chairopoulos, contacted by Franceinfo. “It is a pesticide that has been banned for several years, but it is very persistent in the soil,” she emphasizes.
Indeed, if the difficulty in treating diseases that attack salads can explain the use of fungicides and insecticides, the presence of these residues may also be due to aerial dispersion related to the spread in the vicinity or to contamination of the soil or the water.
“Producers work hard to avoid phytosanitary treatments,” defends Pierre Méliet, president of the Union of manufacturers of fresh and ready-to-use vegetable products (SVFPE), which brings together 60 million consumers.
And he adds: “But to date we do not know how to effectively combat the various lettuce diseases, such as aphid invasions or lettuce blight.”
Patricia Chairopoulos, for her part, wants to reassure the population about the presence of these pesticides. “A salad, even if it contains these pesticide residues, does not present any risk. What is more annoying is eating it every day for months,” she explains.
It is always possible to wash the salad again, “but that will not eliminate all the pesticides, because some are not soluble in water,” the journalist emphasizes.
Source: BFM TV
