Beware of pesticide-laced fruits/Veggies across India

Mangalore Today News Network

Oct 05, 2015: Reports indicate that vegetables sold in major cities contain pesticides, but it has now emerged that these harmful chemicals are present in alarmingly high doses in greens across the country.

 
A report by the agriculture ministry showed that there has been an almost two-fold increase in the number of samples having pesticides above the permitted maximum residue level (MRL) in vegetables, fruits, meat and spices in the past seven years. In 2008-09, 1.4% of samples tested failed the MRL test (183 out of 13,348 samples) while the figure went up to 2.6% in 2014-15 (543 out of 20,618 samples).

Vegetables accounted for over 56% of the samples which had more MRL than the limit set by the food regulator. The major culprits were green chilli, cauliflower, cabbage, brinjal, okra, tomato, capsicum and coriander leaves, according to the annual report on Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at National Level (2014-15). The samples were picked up from mandis, retail shops and also from farm gates.  The result of consuming these can expose humans and animals to grave  sickness.