Pesticide residues found in groceries in Beijing supermarkets

Methods to reduce the deleterious effect of pesticide residues provided.
Traces of 17 pesticide residues were detected in vegetables and fruits at a number of supermarkets in Beijing, according to international environmental group Greenpeace. But the report was rejected by China’s Health Ministry.
In its third online report titled “Monitoring Fruits and Vegetables for Safety”, Greenpeace said it had found traces of 17 carcinogenic chemicals in honeydew melons, apples, peaches, nectars and cherries that were on sale at four big name supermarkets in Beijing, namely, Wal-Mart, Carefour, Lotus and Vanguard.
According to China Online News, in response to Greenpeace’s report, China’s Health Ministry launched an investigation into the alleged contamination in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the Beijing Municipality Government, only to reach a conclusion that there were no safety issues with the fruits and vegetables as reported.
Number One Finance Daily published results of the Greenpeace monitoring of chemical residue in fruits and vegetables in Guangzhou’s big supermarkets: Carefour, Baijia and Wanjia covering a period of five months. It showed that more than 85% of the fruits and vegetables had been contaminated by pesticide chemicals, of which 14% have gone over the national safety limits, 25% is from banned pesticides. The product of Sugar Orange stood out in particular, in which eight kinds of chemical residue were detected, including three banned pesticides.
Xi Guangjian, Greenpeace Project chief on Food Safety and Sustainable Agriculture Development, assured the public that Greenpeace, as an independent and public-welfare organisation, will uphold the credibility of their testing, in answering Wanjia’s denial that Greenpeace could justify the source of its samples to be Wanjia.
It is a standard practice for Greenpeace to deliver all samples for testing, alone with the receipt of the purchase, to a reception point in Hong Kong.
The samples, having been checked and verified against the receipts, are received and photographed with the receipts for record-keeping in the Hong Kong reception office before cracked into pieces, frozen and packed to send to laboratories in Germany.
Recent years have seen a series of problems with Chinese food and other export products, attracting widespread criticism. The products range from poisoned milk power, toys, shoes to bulding materials. Health-related food safety issues rising from problem food have become a serious international concern.

Methods to reduce the deleterious effect of pesticide residues:

1. Washing and immersion. This method applies mainly to green leafy vegetables, such as lettuce, Chinese cabbage and celery. Wash off dirt on the surface of the vegetables and then immerse them in water for at least 10 minutes. Apply some special detergents for washing fruit and vegetables if necessary, to accelerate the dissolution of pesticide residues, particularly those difficult to dissolve in water. Most toxic left-over can be cleaned by repeating the process two to three times
2. Immersion. Aqueous alkali solution can quickly decompose most of the organic phosphorous pesticides. Adding five to ten grams of edible alkali to 500ml clean water to make the solution, in which washed vegetables are immersed for five to ten minutes before rinsing. Rinsing three times may achieve best effects.
3. Heating. Amino formyl ester pesticides decompose quicker at high temperatures, making the heating method ideal to rid vegetables of the above kind of pesticide residue. Common vegetables such as round Chinese cabbage, green pepper and beanstalk are suitable for this method. To apply the method, wash clean the surface of vegetables and fruits, then immerse them in boiling water for two to five minutes before rinsing them once or twice in clean water. Experiments show more than 90% of pesticide residue can be removed this way.
4. Peeling. This method applies to skin fruits and vegetables, including cucumbers, carrots, winder melons, eggplants and tomatoes. Use a knife to peel off contaminated skins and eat the fresh fruit.
5. Storage. Pesticides used in agricultural cultivation decompose gradually into harmless substance after a period of time. This method could be employed to treat preservable vegetables such as winter melons, pumpkins and potatoes. Generally, the storage period should be no less than ten to fifteen days. During this period, don’t eat fresh melons or fruits without peeling their skins first.