Mixture toxicity of pesticide residues in food

Council, Commission and the EU Parliament decided in 2005 (Regulation 396/2005) to protect the public against the negative health effects of mixtures of toxic pesticides in food. Around 30% of fruit and vegetables in EU supermarkets contain more than one pesticide residue, some products like strawberries and grapes could contain up to 10 or 15 pesticides in one basket of fruit1 . EU consumers therefore are exposed to dozens of pesticide residues in their food every day. EU rules up to 2005 only protected against the exposure to only 1 pesticide. However, the implementation of the rule awaits an assessment method, to be designed by Food Authority EFSA. EFSA failed to come up with a method for 13 years now, leaving consumers in the cold and still only being protected against the harms of consuming 1 pesticide in all food. The consumption of fruit and vegetables therefore is not garanted to be safe.