The use of pesticides has decreased in Italy, but there is still a significant use of synthetic chemical molecules in agriculture
The use of pesticides has decreased in Italy, but there is still a significant use of synthetic chemical molecules in agriculture. According to the new Stop Pesticides 2021 dossier, created by Legambiente with Alce Nero (which took into consideration 2,519 samples of food of plant origin, including beekeeping products), the percentage of irregular samples, i.e. with active ingredients beyond the permitted thresholds, it is low, 1.39% of the total, but only 63% of samples analyzed are regular and without pesticide residues. What is worrying is the remaining 35%, relating to those regular samples but containing one or more pesticide residues, albeit within the limits of the law.
Fruit is confirmed as the category with more regular samples with one or more residues: in 53.59% of cases there are traces of at least one active substance. In this category, the foods with a greater presence of pesticides are table grapes (85.71%), pears (82.14%), strawberries (71.79%) and peaches (67.39%). Among the processed foods, however, wine and honey are those with the highest percentage of residues allowed, accounting for approximately 39.90% and 20% respectively.
Source-www.adnkronos.com