Revealed: ‘Dirty Dozen’ fruits and vegetables laced with pesticides

When you pick up fruit and vegetables in UK supermarkets, they may contain a potentially harmful cocktail of pesticides, a report reveals. 

Experts at non–profit Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN UK) have analysed government data examining produce for chemical residue. 

The data singles out the ‘Dirty Dozen’ – the 12 most polluted fruits and vegetables sold, including grapefruit, grapes and limes. 

In all, a quarter of vegetables and three–quarters of fruit contain more than one pesticide – officially considered a ‘cocktail’. 

Nick Mole, policy officer at PAN UK, said much of our food is ‘increasingly contaminated’ and could be affecting our health over the long–term, possibly causing cancers and more. 

‘Safety limits are set for one pesticide at a time, completely ignoring the fact that it’s all too common for food to contain multiple chemicals,’ he said.

‘The truth is we know very little about how these chemicals interact with each other, or what this exposure to hundreds of different pesticides is doing to our health in the long–term. 

‘What we do know is that pesticides can become more toxic when combined, a phenomenon known as “the cocktail effect.”‘ 

Under a decades–old testing programme, the government checks around 3,000kg of food each year for traces of chemicals, purchased from a range of sources including supermarkets. 

Campaign group PAN UK, a non–profit organisation based in Brighton, then analyses the annual reports.

This year, it found a total of 123 different chemicals in the 17 types of fruit and vegetables tested, including 42 pesticides with links to cancer.

Another 21 chemicals are known to interfere with hormone systems, potentially leading to birth defects, developmental disorders and reproductive problems.

In all, 99 per cent of grapefruit samples (120 out of 121) had multiple pesticide residues present – more than any other fruit or vegetable. 

Also high on the list were grapes (97 out of 108 samples, or 89.8 per cent, with residues) and limes (19 out of 24 samples, or 79 per cent). 

Also ranking fairly high on the list were bananas (67 per cent), peppers (49 per cent), melons (46 per cent), beans (37.5 per cent) and chilli peppers (37.5 per cent). 

Gruesomely, one single sample of grapes imported from Turkey contained residues of 16 different pesticides. 

The Dirty Dozen are of course the 12 worst–ranking fruits and veg, but out of the remaining five, four had multiple pesticide residues in samples too – potato, speciality root veg, ginger and garlic. 

Beetroot was the only fruit or veg without multiple residues (there were actually three samples of beetroot that had a single residue found on them).

The non–profit also dug into the data to identify highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) – pesticides known to present particularly high levels of acute or chronic hazards to health or environment. 

By far the most common HHPs detected were two fungicides – imazalil and thiabendazole, which are suspected endocrine disruptors with possible links to cancer.

Each appeared in nine per cent of samples (131 out of 1,494) – mostly in fruit, including grapefruit, bananas and melons. 

PAN UK also analysed the UK government’s testing results for bread – and found 47 per cent of 216 bread samples contained pesticide cocktails.

Chlormequat – a plant growth regulator classified as a developmental toxin – was found in 97 per cent of samples. 

Glyphosate – the UK’s most widely used herbicide linked repeatedly to various cancers and other chronic diseases – appeared in 28 per cent of bread samples. 

Amazingly, 29 per cent of the pesticides detected in government testing are not approved for use by British farmers, often because of the harms they cause to health or environment.

However, these chemicals end up in UK food regardless, because growers in non–EU countries use them on crops that are then exported to the UK. 

PAN UK is now urging the UK government to take a range of measures to protect consumers from pesticides in food, such as supporting British farmers to end their pesticide use and transition to non–chemical alternatives.

The group also wants to see the phasing out and ultimately banning of HHPs and refusing entry to food imports grown using pesticides banned for use domestically.

‘Given how high the stakes are, the government should be doing everything it can to get pesticides out of our food,’ said Mole. 

Members of the public, meanwhile, should buy UK produce where possible and opt for organic – certified as made with no pesticides or synthetic chemicals.