Pesticides banned in France and within the European Union have been found in a substantial number of imported products. The
According to report carrid by the investigative documentary series Vert de rage (Green with Rage), produced by public French television, of 22 samples of fruits and vegetables purchased in large French supermarket chains, seven contained pesticide residues banned in Europe.
Banned substances
One example was a grapefruit from China which contained two banned products: chlorpyrifos (recognised as neurotoxic, toxic for reproduction and an endocrine disruptor, and propiconazole (recognised as toxic for reproduction).
Within the EU, chlorpyrifos has been banned since 2020, propiconazole since 2009.
Grapes from Peru contained residues of imidacloprid (part of the neonicotinoids family - known to be harmful to bees), and myclobutanil, a fungicide, which was withdrawn from the market within the EU in 2021.
Elsewhere, an orange from Tunisia contained malathion, a pesticide classified as "probably carcinogenic", banned in the EU since 2008.
ESA research
The documentary cites research done by the NGO network Pesticide Action Network Europe (PAN Europe) which analysed data from the European Food Safety Authority.
It found that pesticides banned in Europe were more prevalent in certain families of products such as coffee, tea, spices and some vegetables.
Tahitian limes, passion fruit and plums are the most affected, while rice, zucchini and plantain bananas were also found to contain pesticides.
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PAN Europe says that products from elsewhere do not systematically carry pesticides (or residues) banned in the European Union, but the risk of detecting them is higher.
"Imported foods are twice as likely to contain pesticides banned by the EU as foods grown in the EU," the organisation said.
In France, in 2022, the French public agency in charge of food safety Directorate General for Food (DGAL) issued 2,446 food recalls. 328 of them were linked to the presence of pesticides.
Among them, 296 contained at least one banned pesticide or pesticide residue "exceeding the maximum limit authorised in food", the documentary reports.
In 2022, the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), a European alert system which reports problems relating to agri-food products, reported that pesticide residues were the leading cause of food warnings.
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Among the products distributed in France, 104 out of 114 notifications concerned the presence of banned pesticides.
In 2023, RASFF issued 292 notifications for products containing pesticides, of which 77 contained at least one banned pesticide or pesticide residue.
The documentary authors underline that in three years, "26.46 percent of products distributed in France containing banned pesticides came from India", making this country "the most frequent origin" for this type of problem.
Vert de rage also discussed pesticides that have been withdrawn from the European market, but which are still produced in France to be exported to countries where they remain authorised.
According to Swiss NGO Public Eye, the top five destinations for French-made pesticides in 2023 were Brazil, followed by Ukraine, the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom.
Despite the ban on sales in France, there are concerns that the production of these pesticides is affecting drinking water, surface water and groundwater in the towns where the factories are located.
