Vegetables 'safe'

Study says wash it well, then cook to bring pesticide level down to tolerable limit

Increased awareness and government initiatives, such as the formulation of Food Safety Act 2013, have helped reduce the

Ninety samples of 10 types of vegetables -- cauliflower, cabbage, country bean, ladies finger, long yard bean, eggplants, teasle gourd, bitter ground, red amaranth and green chillies -- from 10 kitchen markets in the capital and the seven other divisional headquarters were used for test.

Data shows pesticides were found in 62.5 percent of the vegetables collected directly from farms. Even after a rinse, 37.5 percent of the samples still contained pesticide residue. After cooking, 81.25 percent of the samples were safe for human consumption though they still contained some level of the contaminants.

“The presence of pesticide is found at dangerous levels when vegetables are collected from the fields. But it decreases when they are washed. Good news is that after cooking, it is safe for human consumption,” said BARC Director (nutrition) Md Monirul Islam, also the lead researcher of the study.

According to Codex, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and European Union recommendations, a person can intake 0.002-0.05 milligram pesticides every day, adjusted to their body weight. After cooking, the pesticide amount falls below the limit.

In the examined vegetables, 30 pesticides were found, including chlorpyrifos, fenvelerate, dimethoate, spinosad, thiamethoxam and dithiocarbomates.

Chloropyrifos and Dimethoate are used for killing insects and worms.

Introduced after the 1950s by two American companies, they attack the nervous system of pests and are rated highly toxic and hazardous.

Dithiocarbomate, a fungicide, was found in cauliflower even after it was washed but not after cooking.

 use of pesticide on vegetables grown across the country in the last few years.

Though pesticide is still applied on vegetables at various levels, the amount of the chemical substance you still consume largely depends on what you eat and how you eat it. 

A recent government-sponsored research says 60 percent of the vegetables in the markets are tainted with pesticides used in the fields during harvest. It adds that half of the harmful chemicals may be washed away if rinsed properly.

The study done by Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), found that the level of pesticide residue that remains after washing is within the permissible limit. 

The test was conducted at an internationally accredited lab in Chennai, India, to test the pesticide residue level of raw, washed and cooked vegetables.