The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has hardly found pesticide residues in food produced in Germany. Only 1.1 percent of the samples tested exceeded the limits. For foodstuffs from other EU countries, this rate was 1.9 percent, for food from third countries it stands at 6.3 percent.
Popular foodstuffs such as carrots, potatoes or apples and seasonal products such as strawberries or cherries have rarely risen above the set limits for years, reports the BVL. In 2017, most exceedances were found for tea (14.7%), dried beans (9.5%), fresh herbs (9.0%) and peppers (7.4%).
The checks done on organic food showed that organic products generally contain less pesticide residues than conventionally produced products. For example, 77.3 percent of organic samples had no quantifiable residue at all, while conventional products this number was only 41.9. 1.3 percent of the organic samples had saw residues that exceeded the maximum limits. For conventional goods, this rate was 2.5 percent.
