Oranges are not the safest fruit - they all exceed pesticide limits

Orange peel gives zest to Christmas - spicing up festive fare from mince pies to mulled wine, brandy butter to the pudding itself. But official monitoring, published last week, shows that our seasonal sustenance also contains a hidden peril.

Checks by the Government Pesticides Residues Committee have found that every single orange examined was contaminated by pesticides.

Many of the chemicals found are suspected of causing cancer and "gender-bender effects", about half are banned for use in Britain, and more than a third were found at levels above European or British danger limits.

Two of the pesticides - Carbofuran and Methidathion, banned in Britain - are classified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as "highly hazardous".


http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article333846.ece

Damn I was just asking myself what were these 20 oranges and 10 Grapefruit sprayed with? Jeebus.

And I don't like the little bits of zest in recipes. I know it's where most of the flavor is and most of the essential oils, but I think that citrus juice provides plenty of flavor in almost any recipe. Just leave it out - your baking and cooking will be just fine.

but this is a report from Great Britain. I think they get most of their oranges from the Mediterrean region. What sort of pesticide restrictions, if any, do the countries in southern Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East have? Are they similar to ours? Are the pesticides used in those places the same as the ones used in the countries from which the US imports citrus fruit?

One of the big issues in the US since the dropping of agricultural trade barriers has been the degree of pesticide contamination on foods from the developing world, as well as the contamination of developing world crops with genetically-engineered grains from the US. The only solution I can think of, since governments are not likely to actually take action, is to buy locally produced agricultural products, organic when possible.

I wonder...

although I am getting impatient for them to ripen.

Someone gave me a recipe for lemon liqueur (made by steeping the peels) and I held off on using it until I could get organic lemons. Hope it makes a difference to the chemical load!

I always thought strawberries had the highest pesticide contamination. Guess not.

easily - soap and hot water or the vegetable washes they sell now. I use the vegetable wash sold by Trader Joe's on everything I buy except for organic produce. It gets them so clean the skin sqeaks. Worth the money, I think.

Welcome to DU!
:hi: :toast:

Pickles' All Things Bright and Beautiful displays.

When I was growing up near the groves, very few chemicals were used. Dry climate means fewer bugs, thus fewer pests to chew on the trees and the fruit.

And AZ oranges are the best tasting oranges in the world - they make those sour baseballs from florida and those cardboard things from California worthless.