Fruit in Schools Higher in Pesticide Residue

Archived

Wednesday, 21 September 2005

The Soil Association has said it is a scandal that the fruit supplied to children under the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme contains higher levels of pesticide residues than fruit sold in shops.

The organisation has published a report which shows that the government’s own testing procedures revealed that there was over 25% more pesticides in the samples of fruit and vegetables supplied to school children.

Nearly 30% more instances of multiple pesticides were also found in the school fruit and vegetable samples – although all in all cases the pesticides were present at levels below the government's Maximum Residue Level.

Source: farmers Weekly