Although in Spain the presence of insecticides, herbicides or fungicides in what we eat is little analyzed, the Spanish Food Agency (AESAN) has found up to 106 different types of pesticides in the food that reaches consumers, according to the data collection carried out by Ecologistas in Action.
With the 2022 data, of the 106 pesticides detected, there are 59 considered endocrine disruptors and 32 other banned products (because they are very toxic) which often arrive due to exceptional use authorizations.
The results of the analysis of official data presented this Wednesday by environmentalists reveal that the most contaminated These are fruits and vegetables, in which 43% of the products analyzed contained pesticides, far ahead of cereals, with 9%.
In the tomato group, 31 pesticides were found (19 possible disruptors), in apples 22 phytosanitary pesticides, in oranges 22 others, as in mandarins. 21 chemicals were found in the selected lettuces.
“At the top of the list of foods that contain the most pesticides are always the most used ones, those that can be bought all year round because they are available on the shelves,” adds the labor manager, Koldo Hernández.
Logically, only one substance is not applied to the crops, so the same piece can present a chemical cocktail: the pears were analyzed with nine types of pesticides, the mandarins with eight, or the tomatoes also with eight products.
This pesticide control, required by European legislation, is, in the opinion of this body, very incomplete. Of course, if we compare the level of analysis in Spain with that of the rest of the European Union, it seems that this is the case.
Spain comes last in the number of samples analyzed per 100,000 inhabitants with 3.61. Very far from the EU maximum, Bulgaria, which analyzed more than 200. Nor is it close to the other agricultural powers of the Union: Germany controls 22 foods per 100,000 inhabitants, France about 19 samples and even Portugal analyzes more than nine.
In this sense, in Spain, for example, glyphosate, the most widespread herbicide, sold and used by both individuals and public administrations, has not been investigated. “Of the 30 countries that participated in these analyses, 25 investigated glyphosate, a product present in a third of Spanish rivers and aquifers,” concludes Hernández to illustrate the low level of analysis in Spain.
Spain is an agricultural power in Europe. And it is a leader in the sale and use of pesticides. In fact, it topped the EU list in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, it became second, behind France. That year, pesticide use decreased overall and Spain, in particular, saw its volume decrease considerably: it went from 76 to 56 million kilos in one year. “This is largely due to the increase in prices,” environmentalists believe.
Spain is at the forefront of pesticide sales in Europe. It topped the list in 2020 and 2021 and came in second in 2022. In 2022, there was a general decrease, as shown in Eurostat tables, in the use of these products “largely due to the increase in prices”, explain the environmentalists: it went from 76 to 56 million kilos.
The intensive use of pesticides in the EU over a long period of time means that the soils on which they are applied now have much higher levels of toxic substances than was predicted and calculated when the use of these products was authorised. The results of the study show that almost all European soils contain mixtures of pesticide residues and that the way to calculate their presence may be unreliable,” concludes the Wageningen University study which revealed these surprisingly high concentrations.
Of all the pesticides detected in food in Spain, very rarely did the amounts of the compound not respect the maximum values allowed by the regulations. Only 0.6%. “But the maximum limit is the same for adult men and women, as for children and the elderly,” retorts Koldo Hernández. Furthermore, regulation is one thing and science is another: there is no opinion on the accumulation over time of these products or on the combined effect of being exposed to several toxins at the same time. “No one is exposed to just one,” says Hernández. “How do you evaluate the combined effect of 50 substances?” “We live in a fiction that gives us security,” he concludes.
