Pesticides in UK Coca-Cola fruit drink
Spanish researchers pioneering a rapid, automated method of screening food products for pesticides have found unacceptably high levels of pesticides in fruit-based Fanta brand soft drinks. The brand is part of the Coca-Cola line. Pesticide levels were highest in Fanta sold in the UK.
The study sampled more than 100 drinks from 15 countries including the United States, Russia, Italy, Germany, France and Switzerland. Those in Britain had the highest concentrations. The levels were on average more than 34 times greater than those permitted in tap or bottled drinking water, with some up to 300 times.
The pesticides identified in the study included imazalil, thiabendazole and carbendazim. They are primarily used on fruit after harvest to prevent rotting and the growth of fungus.
Fanta is Coke’s second most popular brand worldwide.
The Food Standards Agency told the Times, UK, that the residue levels were relatively low and were not considered a safety risk. The paper says that there are no maximum recommended limits for pesticide residues in fruit juices.
Peter Melchett, of the Soil Association, told the Times: “The government fails to protect people from pesticides. There needs to be more work on the cumulative effect of residues and this report provides further evidence of a laissez-faire approach.”
According to the UK Daily Mail:
two orange drinks bought in the UK contained imazalil at 300 times the limit permitted for a single pesticide in drinking water.
Two similar products contained 98 times the legal drinking water limit for thiabendazole.
The average level of the total pesticide contamination of the British drinks was 17.4 parts per billion – 34.6 times the EU maximum residue level for water.
A Coke GB representative said on January 5 “All of the drinks tested meet the safety regulations relating to food products made from agricultural ingredients, which includes drinks containing fruit juice. The generally miniscule levels that were detected were well within the acceptable daily intake levels and these findings should reassure consumers there is no safety issue here.”
The scientists themselves write:
The concentration levels detected were of the micrograms per liter level, low when considering the European maximum residue levels (MRLs) set for fruits but very high (i.e., 300 times) when considering the MRLs for drinking or bottled water. The detected pesticides (carbendazim, thiabendazole, imazalil and its main degradate, prochloraz and its main degradate, malathion, and iprodione) are mainly those applied to crops in the final stages of production (postharvest treatment), some of them contain chlorine atoms in their structures. Therefore, steps should be taken with the aim of removing any traces of pesticides in these products, in order to avoid this source of pesticide exposure on the consumer, particularly on vulnerable groups with higher exposure, such as children.
The concentrations of pesticides were compared with the levels permitted in drinking water in the European Union. These are 0.1 micrograms per litre for each pesticide and 0.5 micrograms per litre for the total concentration. The average concentration of pesticides was the highest in Britain at 17.4 micrograms per litre, ahead of 12.3 in Spain and 4.9 in France. Drinks bought in the United States, Russia and Morocco had significantly lower levels of pesticide, according to the report in the journal Analytical Chemistry.
The researchers say: “Because of the international trade of fruits and vegetables and the lack of harmonized regulations on the use of pesticides worldwide, the development of comprehensive screening methods for analyzing hundreds of pesticides and other banned chemicals is very convenient.”
US EPA, in a series of studies from 1999 through 2005, concluded that imazalil is “likely to be a human carcinogen.” Tests produced liver and thyroid tumors in male rats fed a diet containing imazalil.
SOURCES
Determination of Pesticide Residues in Fruit-Based Soft Drinks. Garcia-Reyes JF, Gilbert-Lopez B, Molina-Diaz A, Fernandez-Alba AR. Anal Chem. 2008 Nov 5. [Epub ahead of print]Click here to read
Accurate-Mass Databases for Comprehensive Screening of Pesticide Residues in Food by Fast Liquid Chromatography Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry. Anal Chem. 2008 Dec 31.
Imazalil Under Consideration for Possible Listing Via the Authoritative Bodies Mechanism: Request for Relevant Information [06/27/08] California Gov OEHHA (Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment)
CHEMICAL UNDER CONSIDERATION FOR POSSIBLE LISTING VIA THE AUTHORITATIVE BODIES MECHANISM: IMAZALIL .pdf June 2008
Reproductive and Cancer Hazard Assessment Branch Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment California Environmental Protection Agency:
“Imazalil may meet the criteria for listing as known to the State to cause reproductive toxicity and cancer under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Health and Safety Code Section 25249.5 et seq.), more commonly known as Proposition 65 . . . . ”
More pesticides in UK juice drinks December 21, 2008
Mail Online Jan 5, 2009
UK Daily Telegraph Coca Cola hits back over Fanta high pesticide level claims
Fanta Ingredients: Orange Juice Percentage Variation by Country
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