Organic strawberries with pesticide cocktail

40 tonnes of frozen strawberries from Turkey were contaminated with 25 pesticides. The EU Commission suspects fraud. The goods were seized.

As the online newspaper taz reports, the German importer had sent the goods to the laboratory. The laboratory found 25 different pesticides, two of which were slightly above the orientation value of 0.01 milligrams of active ingredient per kilogram of product defined by the German Natural Food Association (Bundesverband Naturkost Naturwaren), taz quotes the importer. After preliminary analyses of the Turkish salesman the commodity was clean. According to the importer, the strawberries were to be mixed with mueslis, fruit teas or snacks.

Residues indicate food fraud

"Due to the quantity of the various pesticide residues found, there is a strong suspicion of food fraud and probably a redirection from conventional to organic farming," quotes the taz from a letter of the EU Commission. The supplier in the western Turkish province of Izmir was certified by the Nuremberg organic inspection body Kiwa BCS. In this context, taz points out that Kiwa BCS also certified the Dubai trading company Hakan Organics. According to the US Department of Agriculture, this company exported tens of thousands of tons of conventional soybeans and maize from Ukraine and Romania to the United States via Turkey at the beginning of 2017 - as organic goods. The inspection body did not want to comment on the current case and the earlier scandals, the taz wrote.