More than 90% of apples in Luxembourg and some other European Union countries contain so much residue from pesticides that under bloc regulations children under three should not eat them, according to a report from an anti-pesticide campaign group.
Some “93% of apples contain pesticide residues, and usually more than one,” Pesticide Action Network (PAN) said on Thursday in a report. “Residues found in this study were up to 600 times higher than the legal limit for processed baby food.”
All apple samples tested from Luxembourg contained at least one pesticide, PAN said. Their study analysed 59 samples of apples that had already been washed from 13 EU countries, including the Grand Duchy.
Out of all the countries tested, Luxembourg apples contained the most pesticide residues – or pesticide ingredients – at five.
The study found that levels of pesticides in the samples “were not only slightly elevated, they were seven to 112 times higher than the legal limit for infant food”.
There is no risk to consumers in Luxembourg, a spokesperson for the agriculture ministry said in a statement on Friday.
Testing by the country’s food safety agency, ALVA, confirms “that apples from Luxembourg comply with the applicable legal requirements and can be consumed by both children and adults without any health risk,” the ministry said, adding that in a 16 year period from 2009, no apple from Luxembourg production showed non-compliant pesticide residues.
The ministry also called into question the methodology used in the PAN report.
“Maximum residue levels (MRLs) are presented in the report as health-based limits. However, MRLs are not toxicological thresholds but are based on good agricultural practice. Only the ADI (acceptable daily intake) and ARfD (acute reference dose) are relevant for the health assessment. Therefore, the mere presence of residues does not automatically pose a risk to consumers,” the ministry spokesperson said.
“Furthermore, since 2016, the use of pesticides in Luxembourg agriculture has been reduced by more than 50% overall,” the spokesperson added.
There are several measures in place in Luxembourg to minimise risks, the agriculture ministry said, including control programmes, the “consistent reduction of particularly problematic active ingredients” and subsidy programmes for reduced pesticide use.
(This article was originally published by the Luxemburger Wort. Machine translated using AI, with editing and adaptation by Kate Oglesby.)
