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A new survey of 60 million consumers reveals that many well-known brand name jams contain insecticides or fungicides.
At breakfast, as a snack or to complement a cheese platter: many of us love jam. Except that they would not all be good for health, according to 60 million consumers. In its new investigation, the magazine indeed reveals that several jams made from strawberries or apricots contain pesticide residues. Explanations.
Insecticides or fungicides have been identified
To carry out this survey, the teams of 60 Million consumers bought 40 jars of jams of different brands, strawberry or apricot because these are “the best-selling flavors”.
They then analyzed the composition of the jams and looked for the presence of 600 different pesticides.
Result ? “We found 15 molecules of different insecticides or fungicides in 22 of the 40 references analyzed”, indicates the association. The most contaminated jams turned out to be those made from apricot.
Another observation from the magazine: four jars of apricot jam (Auchan La Gourmande; Confipote 65% fruit; Gerblé without added sugar; Intermarché Paquito extra) were found to be particularly toxic to health because they contain two pesticides banned in European Union because of their harmfulness: carbendazim and thiophanate-methyl.
In addition, 60 million consumers note the presence of carbendazim in Andros low-fat apricot jam -30% sugar.
NO to diets, YES to WW!
Pesticides in jams: to avoid them, choose organic
The regulatory thresholds remain respected.
“Even if these pesticides have potentially toxic effects (allergy, harmfulness for the environment, even impacts on fertility or the health of the fetus), all are at concentrations well below the regulatory thresholds.”, reassures the association.
However, for consumers concerned about their health, the magazine specifies that it is better to favor jams labeled organic, since no trace of pesticides has been detected in the ten organic jars of the selection.