France: pesticide contamination of fruits and vegetables is underestimated

The pesticide contamination of fruits and vegetables in France is widely underestimated according to the NGO Générations futures (illustrative image).

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Every year, the DGCCRF (General Directorate for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Control) communicates, on the basis of random checks, the percentages of fruits and vegetables contaminated by pesticide residues.

The NGO Future Generations publishes a report this Thursday which shows that these figures are significantly lower than reality.

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For lack of specifications, it seemed to everyone that the figures of the annual reports published by the General Directorate of Competition, Consumption and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) were derived from controls on intensive agriculture only.

But it turns out that this is not the case. 

From 2019,

requested all the data tables from the DGCCRF in order to establish more detailed statistics.

On the basis of the complete data provided, the NGO found that the statistics were calculated from both samples taken in intensive agriculture and samples from organic farming;

which significantly reduces the percentages of pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables.

In 2017, once the organic samples have been removed, the percentages of pesticide residues are actually 2 to 3% higher: instead of 63% for fruits and 43% for vegetables, the figures are respectively 67% and 45%.

In the end, this gives an overall result of 54% contamination from pesticides, instead of the 51% previously announced. 

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• Environment

• Agriculture and Fishing

• France