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EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

foodwatch.org

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Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#41

Post by mhitza »

nozzlegear wrote: post #16

The report itself[†] blames the pesticide residue on a "boomerang effect" from EU countries: EU countries export these banned pesticides to third countries, those countries use the banned pesticides on the food they grow, and then the EU countries import that food. In effect, EU companies are still profiting off of the sale and use of banned pesticides on food that Europeans will eat. [†] https://www.foodwatch.org/fi…

That is one reason why I, at least try to, check the label and avoid products with non-EU ingredients.

Also one of my worries with the mercusour trade deal. And any deal that involves meat imports from the US, with specific laxer regulation requirements (at least what Trump would like).

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#42

Post by verall »

andrewstuart wrote: post #14

I carefully check the label and try to only buy Australian made 100% food. I never buy any food ever from China.

It's one of the richest food cultures in the world. If you've never tried sichuan peppercorn on mapo tofu, or pickled mustard greens on noodle dishes, I think you're in for a real treat.

These do involve foods from China though..

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#43

Post by Jensson »

daedrdev wrote: post #32
bijowo1676 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EU generally leads the developed world in regulation, that has become a meme and a joke. but for Food related stuff, EU standards and regulation are truly superior for consumers, relative to US and other countries

The United States has far stricter labeling standards than the EU. That's why US products appear to have more ingredients, they are required to say what their ingredients are mad from, even on identical products. Many things that are well known memes are completely false. Not everything in the EU is better regulated. Everyone always complains about chlorinated chicken, not realizing that <5% of US chicken is washed t…

> The United States has far stricter labeling standards than the EU

Source for that? All I can find says EU have stricter labeling standards except for forum comments such as yours here.

Edit: > Many things that are well known memes are completely false

To me it looks like "USA shows more additives due to harsher labeling standards" is just a meme, everything I've seen says Europe has stricter requirements on what you need to say about additives. So USA having much more additives listed comes from American products having more additives in them, not everything is better in USA.

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#44

Post by andrewstuart »

verall wrote: post #42
andrewstuart wrote: post #14

I carefully check the label and try to only buy Australian made 100% food. I never buy any food ever from China.

It's one of the richest food cultures in the world. If you've never tried sichuan peppercorn on mapo tofu, or pickled mustard greens on noodle dishes, I think you're in for a real treat. These do involve foods from China though..

You can use safe Australian ingredients to cook the recipe.

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#45

Post by bluebarbet »

darth_avocado wrote: post #30
ofrzeta wrote: post #6

For spices and tea it really makes sense to buy organic (not that there are no fraudsters but still).

Organic is just green washing, it doesn’t mean no chemicals. Plenty of organic products contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals. Organic oats have been found to contain glyphosate. Organic spices have been found to contain heavy metals.

Organic is a label which means something specific. Compliance with the definition is controlled by law, however imperfectly. It is not just greenwashing.

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#46

Post by luqtas »

Saline9515 wrote: post #33
darth_avocado wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Organic is just green washing, it doesn’t mean no chemicals. Plenty of organic products contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals. Organic oats have been found to contain glyphosate. Organic spices have been found to contain heavy metals.

Organic means that no non-organic pesticides have been used in production. There are still organic ones available, which are less dangerous. Especially to the farmers who are the first ones to get exposed to the poisons we spread on the fields.

care to cite any decent research proving you point?

there's an extensive body of research on synthetics having no effect on human health, from goverment funded, private and independent research... if you access your country's official institution you'll see there's plenty of synthetics allowed in organic agriculture just because they mimic perfectly "organic" substances

interesting point too, is the lack of any extensive meta-analysis/studies on organic pesticide impact on health and plus the fact organic farm is rather poor (produce less than 2% of the global food) and usually if not always lack good machinery to spread pesticides on the recommended quantities science points out (which organic agriculture also has less literature on that too)

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#47

Post by Saline9515 »

fasterik wrote: post #40
Saline9515 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The toxic dose is a vague term. You may not die from exposure, but you can still have effects, such as infertility, cancers or endocrine disruption.

If we really want to be precise, we should talk about parts per million (PPM). Scientific research establishes a safe level of consumption in terms of PPM, below which there are no detectable health effects. Generally when you see alarmism about "pesticides found in food" they're orders of magnitude below the PPM that would have any effect on human health.

Exactly, scientific research established that DDT was perfectly safe, too! Scientists even used to eat it to "prove" that it was safe.

In reality it depends, being biology, "safe level" is also very relative since you don't know every effect the substance has on the body.

That's why pesticides and other chemicals such as bisphenols are regularly phased out, since effects can appear long after "scientific research" established it was "safe". Or it can affect certain populations, such as farmers, who get a high dose, or children, who are more sensitive than adults.

Others, such DDT, lead or cadmium, are accumulated in the body over a long period, and then start to show effects, even when the person has stopped eating it. Or can find their way later the food chain: Inuits would get poisoned when eating polar bear's meat, that was full of DDT from fields on the other side of the globe.

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#48

Post by bluGill »

bluebarbet wrote: post #45
darth_avocado wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Organic is just green washing, it doesn’t mean no chemicals. Plenty of organic products contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals. Organic oats have been found to contain glyphosate. Organic spices have been found to contain heavy metals.

Organic is a label which means something specific. Compliance with the definition is controlled by law, however imperfectly. It is not just greenwashing.

You are both correct. Organic means something specific. However what it means is not what most people think it means. People want healthy and good for the earth - that is not what organic gives you. Sometimes it does, but sometimes conventional ag (with all those scary chemicals) is better.

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#49

Post by bluGill »

verall wrote: post #42
andrewstuart wrote: post #14

I carefully check the label and try to only buy Australian made 100% food. I never buy any food ever from China.

It's one of the richest food cultures in the world. If you've never tried sichuan peppercorn on mapo tofu, or pickled mustard greens on noodle dishes, I think you're in for a real treat. These do involve foods from China though..

They have some really good foods. They also have some really unethical foods. When we only have a broad brush...
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