Pepsi Finds Fungicide Traces in Tropicana OJ
Source: The Wall Street Journal
PepsiCo Inc. said it has found traces of the unapproved fungicide carbendazim in its Tropicana orange juice, but at levels that don't raise government safety concerns.
Friday's disclosure comes after Coca-Cola Co., maker of the Simply and Minute Maid orange-juice brands, confirmed earlier this week that it had alerted the Food and Drug Administration in December after discovering carbendazim in its own and competitors' orange-juice products.
Coke also has assured customers its products are safe, citing a U.S. government assessment that the levels didn't pose a health risk.
Use of the fungicide is widespread in Brazil, a supplier of orange juice to the U.S. The FDA has vowed to pull juice with higher than trace elements of the potentially harmful fungicide, which is 80 parts per billion or higher.
Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409004577159633589976096.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
just look at the label on a citrus fruit crate next time you see a worker stocking fruit in the produce section...
The fun stuff... if you are squeamish you might not want to read this
http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/REDs/factsheets/2325fact.pdf
"Imazalil is a systemic fungicide for post harvest use on bananas, citrus, and preplanting seed treatments of barley and wheat.
Imazalil is classified as “Likely to be carcinogenic in humans,” according to EPA’s July 1999 Draft Guidelines for Carcinogenic Assessment. Carcinogenicity studies in rodents indicate imazalil is carcinogenic to male Swiss albino mice and Wistar rats based on a significant increase in liver adenomas and combined adenomas/carcinomas. Based on current science policy and absent information supporting a mode of action in test animals, EPA quantified the human cancer risk by a linear low-dose (Q1*) extrapolation. The most potent unit risk, Q1*(mg/kg/day)-1 for imazalil based on male mouse liver adenoma and/or carcinoma combined tumor rates is 6.1 x 10-2 (mg/kg/day)-1 in human equivalents. In rats, there was also an increased incidence of combined thyroid follicular cell adenomas/carcinomas. In addition, imazalil is placed in Category II, II, and IV for oral, dermal and inhalation toxicity respectively. It is highly irritating to the eye (Category I), but is not a skin irritant (Category IV) or a dermal sensitizer.
Dietary Risks
EPA determined that there is a reasonable certainty that no harm to any
population subgroup will result from aggregate exposure to imazalil when
considering dietary (food and water) exposure and all other non-occupational
sources of pesticide exposure for which there is reliable information. " <------There feel better now!
