Food Contaminant - Pesticides and Carcinogens

Pesticides and Carcinogens

There are many cases of banned pesticides or carcinogens found in foods.

• Greenpeace exposed in 2006 in China that 25% of surveyed supermarkets agricultural products contained banned pesticides. Over 70% of tomatoes that tested were found to have the banned pesticide Lindane, and almost 40% of the samples had a mix of three or more types of pesticides. Fruits were also tested in this investigation. Tangerines, strawberries, and Kyofung grapes samples were found contaminated by banned pesticides, including the highly toxic Methamidophos. These fruits can also be found in Hong Kong market. Greenpeace says there exists no comprehensive monitoring on fruit produce in the Hong Kong as of 2006.
• In India, soft drinks were found contaminated with high levels of pesticides and insecticides, including lindane, DDT, malathion and chlorpyrifos.
• News of Formaldehyde, a carcinogen was found in Vietnamese national dish, Pho, broke in 2007 Vietnam food scare. Vegetables and fruits were also found to have banned pesticides. "Health agencies have known that Vietnamese soy sauce, the country's second most popular sauce after fish sauce, has been chock full of cancer agents since at least 2001", thundered the Thanh Nien daily. "Why didn't anyone tell us?" The carcinogen in Asian sauces is 3-MCPD and its metabolite 1,3-DCP, which has been an ongoing problem before 2000 affecting multiple continents.
• 2005 Indonesia food scare, carcinogenic formaldehyde was added as a preservative to noodles, tofu, salted fish, and meatballs
• 2008 Chinese milk scandal