Orange drinks with 300 times more pesticide than (maximum allowed in) tap water

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1105179/Orange-drinks-300-times-pesticide-tap-water.html

Orange drinks with 300 times more pesticide than tap water

By Sean Poulter
Last updated at 12:53 AM on 05th January 2009

Fizzy drinks sold by Coca-Cola in Britain have been found to contain pesticides at up to 300 times the level allowed in tap or bottled water.

A worldwide study found pesticide levels in orange and lemon drinks sold under the Fanta brand, which is popular with children, were at their highest in the UK.

The research team called on the Government, the industry and the company to act to remove the chemicals and called for new safety standards to regulate the soft drinks market.

The industry denies children are at risk and insists that the levels found by researchers based at the University of Jaen in southern Spain are not harmful.

…

[Haole Girl]

1. Oh lovely

:sarcasm:

[phantom power]

2. I'm sure that there is some private-industry solution to regulating our food...

we just need to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and test all the food we buy ourselves!

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. But the US is safe, because they don't use fruit in their versions

We purchased different brands which together make up most of the global market for fruit-based soft drinks. We measured 102 samples collected from around the world and investigated the presence of 100 compounds (see Table 1). Samples were collected from Spain (41), The United Kingdom (19), The United States (11), France (8), Italy (5), Russia (4) Germany (3), Austria (2), The Czech Republic (2), Morocco (2), Hungary (1), Poland (1), Portugal (1), Slovakia (1), and Switzerland (1). (see Tables S1 and S2 in the Supporting Information).

From the 102 samples analyzed, only 17 (16.7%) were found to be free of the studied pesticides. The rest of the samples were positive. Out of these, 14.6% contained at least 1 pesticide, 4% contained 2 pesticides, 65% contained at least 3 pesticides, and 58% of the studied samples contained 4 or more pesticide residues. The concentration found for the studied and detected compounds in each individual sample is included in the Supporting Information. For instance, there were cases of seven different classes of pesticides found in the same sample at relevant concentrations. It should be stated that the presence of more than one chemical can enhance the toxic effect of the others. The combined effect of a cocktail comprised of various pesticides can be more harmful than the sum of the individual effects from each of them alone.(4)

Interestingly, most of the samples collected from the United States (11 samples purchased in Orlando, FL) did not contain pesticides. In this country, as claimed on the label, the product is artificially flavored, and therefore no fruit extract is used. This explains the absence of pesticides. In Morocco and Russia, no significant concentrations were detected either, although the products contained a certain percentage of juice. In these cases, either the way the product is manufactured is different or it is possible that the raw material does not contain any pesticide. A more in-depth study, including a detailed analysis of other less used classes of pesticides (i.e., organochlorine and organophosphorus) or pesticides banned in the EU, should be performed to confirm these results. The rest of the samples collected in the EU contained relatively large concentrations of carbendazim, imazalil, imazalil metabolite, prochloraz, prochloraz metabolite, and thiabendazole.

http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/ac8012708?cookieSet=1

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. "… samples collected from the United States … did not contain pesticides … artificially flavored …"

"Better Living Through Chemistry"

[LiberalEsto]

4. Makes you wonder

if corporations are trying to kill people on purpose.

[MineralMan]

6. Nah...they just don't give a crap.

They aren't trying to kill anyone, but "they're more fun when they do."

[OKIsItJustMe]

8. Corporations don't try to kill people on purpose

People = Customers
No customers = No profits
No profits = No corporations

Now, if they can get away with cutting corners to maximize profits, without killing too many people…

[MineralMan]

5. I always thought Fanta soft drinks were awful...

Nothing much orange about Fanta orange. It tastes more like some sophomore organic chemistry student's concept of what "orange" should taste like. I haven't tried one in years, but it tasted like crap when I was a kid in the 50s and 60s, and it tasted like crap when I last tasted it in the 80s. I'm assuming it still tastes like crap.

[Javaman]

9. Well, just look at it this way, you will never be attacked by fruit flies. nt

[RC]

10. What do you expect when you use the wash water in the final product.

[Mrs. Overall]

11. I don't understand something--

What products are in artificially flavored orange soda that would have been sprayed by pesticides?
The soda doesn't seem to contain real orange juice from oranges growing on trees that would have been sprayed, so I'm confused as to why water and other artificial ingredients would contain pesticides.

[OKIsItJustMe]

12. The answer is that in other countries, they aren't artificially flavored

Where natural flavors are used however…

[Mrs. Overall]

13. Interesting. So here we're screwed because of the chemicals and in other countries

they're screwed because it's natural.

Our "food" system is truly messed up.

[OKIsItJustMe]

14. Well, not exactly, no...

They're screwed because of the chemicals (i.e. pesticides) used in growing the fruit. (It's not the fruit per se.)