According to a recent survey done by the Union Government, the presence of pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables is getting higher than the maximum permissible levels (MPL).
Apart from this, vegetables from some parts of Uttar Pradesh were found the presence of banned pesticides. The survey, conducted over a year from November 2007 to October 2008 across the country by the Union agriculture and cooperation ministry. It revealed that 18% of vegetables and 12% of fruits, both home grown and imported, contained pesticide residues, including banned pesticides, according to a media report.
These residues are higher than the maximum permissible levels, which is 4% in vegetables and 2% fruits. The survey analysed a total of 12,004 samples during the year. It considered water sample and market samples of vegetables, fruits, spices, cereal grains, milk, butter, fish, tea, honey, meat and marine products, for possible presence of pesticide residues.
Vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, okra (lady`s finger) and tomato had the highest amount of pesticide residue. A total of 1,726 samples of apple, banana, grape, orange, pomegranate, guava and mango were analysed in 15 different laboratories.
The pesticides found in fruits mainly included chlorpyriphos, monocrotophos, profenophos and cypermethrin. Banned pesticides were mainly found in the samples analysed by the Lucknow laboratory. These samples were collected from Gorakhpur, Faizabad and Allahabad. About 54% of them had residues. The banned pesticides include Aldrin, HCH, Chlordane, DDT, Diethoate, Chlorpyrifos and Heptachlor.
(Posted on : 13/06/2009)
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