They are found in half of the foods of plant origin tested in intensive agriculture, warns the UFC Que Choisir.
The report drawn up Thursday by the UFC Que Choisir is edifying: a little more than half of the foods of plant origin tested (51%) in intensive agriculture carry “at least one potentially dangerous substance”. That is to say they are “contaminated with pesticides suspected of being carcinogenic, toxic for reproduction or DNA or endocrine disruptors”announces the consumer association, detailing data that sheds a harsh light on the content of our plates. “We studied the results of the pesticide residue analyzes carried out by the French authorities, in 2019, on more than 14,000 products” sold in France, explains Que Choisir.
Apples, the most contaminated food according to the UFC Que Choisir
And no less than 150 carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic or endocrine disrupting substances have been found in pesticides. With, for example, “in more than a quarter of the grapefruit analyzed (27.4%), pyriproxyfen, strongly suspected of being an endocrine disruptor and of having contributed to the malformations of the head and brain observed in Brazil”.
The most contaminated foods would be apples, in 80% of the samples, we would detect particularly fludioxonil, a fungicide suspected of being an endocrine disruptor, in 48% of the samples.
The loopholes in European regulations
In second position, we would find almost all the cherries studied. They would be contaminated in particular with phosmet, an insecticide suspected by the European Food Safety Authority of being toxic for the reproductive function. These deviations are explained “by many loopholes in European regulations, which are supposed to protect us”, according to the consumer association, which sees an alternative: consume organic.
Foods from organic farming are “much less contaminated, in particular because of the ban on synthetic pesticides for this mode of production”, shows the same study. But they remain much more expensive for consumers.
