Gyeonggi Province Health & Environment Research Institute Detects 115 Cases of Excessive Pesticide Residues in 9,919 Agricultural Products Last Year
[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hoon] The Gyeonggi Province Health & Environment Research Institute announced on the 25th that from January to December last year, it investigated pesticide residues in 9,919 agricultural products in the province and detected pesticides exceeding permissible standards in 115 cases across 32 items, taking measures including seizure and destruction.
The investigation covered 6,067 auctioned agricultural products from four major public wholesale markets in the province (Suwon, Guri, Anyang, Ansan) and 3,852 distributed agricultural products from small, medium, and large retailers. The investigation examined the presence of 341 types of pesticide residues.
Among these, inspections of fresh food products on online markets, which have seen increased sales due to COVID-19 and other factors, increased by 68% from 2019 to 239 cases.
The inspection results showed pesticide residues exceeding standards in a total of 32 items and 115 cases, including ▲18 types of leafy vegetables (lettuce 15 cases, fatsia 13 cases, spinach 11 cases, crown daisy 10 cases, summer radish 9 cases, bok choy 8 cases, Chinese cabbage 5 cases, perilla leaves 4 cases, etc.) ▲4 types of leaf and stem vegetables (Chinese chives 2 cases, celery 2 cases, green onion 2 cases, young garlic 1 case) ▲5 types of herbs (cilantro (leaves) 2 cases, mint 2 cases, rosemary 1 case, etc.). Among these, 4 cases of online fresh food products were judged non-compliant for herbs.
Regarding detected components, insecticide components accounted for the most with 77 cases (diazinon 25 cases, etofenprox 10 cases, flubendiamide 4 cases, etc.), followed by fungicide components 34 cases (chlorothalonil 8 cases, procymidone 8 cases, fluquinconazole 5 cases, etc.), and herbicide components 10 cases (methabenzthiazuron 5 cases, pendimethalin 2 cases, etc.).
The Gyeonggi Province Health & Environment Research Institute seized and destroyed agricultural products judged non-compliant, imposed a one-month ban on entry to wholesale markets for the relevant producers, and notified the results to the city and county of origin to ensure administrative action.
Oh Jo-gyo, director of the Gyeonggi Province Health & Environment Research Institute, stated, “We will make every effort in continuous testing to preemptively block harmful agricultural products and ensure safe distribution of agricultural products.”