What is in this article?:
- The Dirty Dozen: Apples top list, cilantro's unapproved pesticides make record debut
- The cilantro-parsley confusion
- 'Safe' use of pesticides?
The Environment Working Group's latest "Dirty Dozen" list reveals dirty pesticide practices, with apples jumping up three spots to number one. Are EPA's pesticide guidelines simply being ignored by growers or are tests improving?
The cilantro-parsley confusion
USDA recently tested cilantro for the first time, and the herb made a big entrance with the highest percentage of unapproved pesticides recorded on any item in the guide since EWG began tracking data in 1995. Thirty-three chemicals were present on 44 percent of cilantro samples. A USDA report stated that a number of these chemicals were approved for use in parsley, and it appears that cilantro growers were confused.
"If you see those pesticide labels, what you can and can't use them for, they're really quite detailed," said Pobst. "It's a lot of small print. As many growers as there are doing it correctly, there are probably some not getting it right." But it's hard to believe that a cilantro grower could confuse the plant with parsley, she added. "And anyway, as a consumer, why is it OK to put it on parsley if it's not OK to put on cilantro?"
In a recent NewHope360 blog on the topic, Susan Esrey, senior editor for Delicious Living said, "It's unsavory enough to ponder all the pesticides sprayed on U.S. food crops that the EPA has approved as 'safe' without worrying that producers may be ignoring what rules are in place."
USDA maintains that "there appears to be confustion whether the uses registered for parsley apply to cilantro; this has been communicated to EPA and FDA."
