Fungicide double standards in US

After the recent flurry of testing imported orange juice products for the fungicide carbendazim, it has been revealed that US officials will not be taking action against US manufacturers whose orange juice products contain more than 10 parts per billion of the fungicide.

In response to this information, a Brazilian citrus trade body has called the FDA’s approach a case of “double standards”.

Nine samples of domestic orange juice products showed levels of carbendazim ranging from 13 to 36 ppb. Imported orange juice products with comparable levels were refused entry into the US after Coca-Cola alerted the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that it had found carbendazim in imported orange juice at levels that exceed the US limit of 10 ppb.

The FDA claims that orange juice with levels of carbendazim below 80 ppb “does not pose a health risk”, according to information from the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA). Based on this information, the FDA believes the orange juice does not need to be removed from the market. It also does not believe it needs to continue testing orange juice products that are already in the US, but will conduct follow-up testing.

Spokesperson for CitrusBR, Christian Lohbauer, told FoodProductonDaily that, considering much of the product that was denied entry to the US was in concentrated form, by the time it reached consumers in diluted form, it would have fallen below the US limit of 10 ppb.

Lohbauer added, “It means that FDA analyses health issues when considering the final product and legal issues when considering the imported products (raw material).”

See our related articles on carbendazim: American fungicide scare raises questions about Australian standards and Testing, testing: what's happening with Australian food safety standards?