Facua-Consumers in Action has denounced that a couple of weeks ago the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (Rasff) issued a health alert in relation to some watermelons from Spain that had an excess of the pesticide Flonicamid, and that no body Neither company from our country has manifested itself in this regard. It also regrets that Rasff has not shared more information about the affected products, such as the brand, the batch or the place where they were grown.
According to this body, it was the Dutch authorities that gave the notice after noting that the proportion of residues of this pesticide was 0.74 mg/kg-ppm, when its Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) is set at 0′ 4mg/kg-ppm. The Rasff considers the level of risk of this alert as “serious”.
Flonicamid is a pesticide that belongs to the Pyridinecarboxamide chemical family, and is used to control more than 40 types of aphids that can damage a wide variety of crops. It is not the same pesticide that has starred in the media food alert for watermelons from Morocco: they contained methomyl and exceeded 25 times the maximum residue limit allowed by the European Union.
Since the Rasff launched the alert in relation to Spanish watermelons contaminated with Flonicamid on July 27, the Spanish Food Safety Agency (Aesan) has not provided any additional information. Rubén Sánchez, general secretary of Facua, has explained to this newspaper that he is unaware of the criteria that this organization follows to publish or not alerts on food that they know is being sold in Spain. “In any case, we would like you to share information about the alert, or AESAN or the Ministry of Agriculture, whoever has the data on this irregularity,” he points out.
Facua also criticizes that the little information provided by Rasff makes it impossible for consumers to know if they have bought or consumed the watermelons affected by this excess of pesticide. “We regret that they are not clear, because suspicion falls on any plantation or point in Spain, when perhaps they have only been grown in one place,” says Sánchez.
The association considers that the information shared in the European Alert Network should be more complete, and points out that this lack of data is quite common. “They should also indicate the brand of the product in which the irregularities have been detected,” concludes the Secretary General.
