Pesticide residues exceeded EU limits in 13.1 per cent of plant food samples tested in Cyprus last year, according to the state general laboratory report published on Friday.
Of 466 samples, 61 were non-compliant, while a further 34, or 7.3 per cent, breached the law once measurement uncertainty was considered, meaning they should not normally have reached the market.
Vegetables recorded the highest rate among fresh produce at 9.8 per cent, against 6 per cent for fruit, 3.8 per cent for tea, herbs and spices, and 1.5 per cent for cereals and legumes; processed foods stood at 13.9 per cent.
In seven samples, including cypermethrin in grapes and spinach, exposure for adults and children exceeded the acute toxicity reference dose.
Children’s exposure alone exceeded it in three further cases, and adult exposure in one involving vine leaves in brine.
Acetamiprid was the most frequently detected substance at 13.5 per cent, followed by cypermethrin at 11.8 per cent and tebuconazole at 11.2 per cent.
Domestic produce made up 52.2 per cent of plant samples, with 18 per cent from the EU and 28.5 per cent from outside it.
Residues were also found in 18 of 85 organic samples, among them oats, barley, dried mint, peaches and kiwis.
Among 83 animal samples, 14.5 per cent contained residues. Seven of nine affected honey samples held amitraz, while sheep muscle tissue showed low levels of DDT and pork fat contained pyridate.
One honey sample was ruled non-compliant and followed up at the premises concerned.
Former Ecologists Movement MP MP Charalambos Theopemptou said tracing contaminated produce back to its grower is a major obstacle to enforcement.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, he said it is “difficult to identify who the producer of the actual product is in any given supermarket”.
He explained that in the instance where “a shopper who picks up produce from a shop, they cannot easily establish where they were grown, and the same applies to inspectors”.
“It is difficult to trace the specific point of origin, for without that link, a failed sample cannot readily be tied to a particular farm, and responsibility is hard to assign”, he said.
Theopemptou said inspections at farms offer limited he, as “pesticides break down over time, so residues may no longer be present when officials arrive”.
A visit made weeks after spraying, or after harvest, could find nothing even if an excessive application had taken place.
Theopemptou stressed on that reason that produce “must be tested from the point of sale”. He pointed to existing practice as evidence the approach works, such as “goods crossing from the occupied areas into the government-controlled areas are already sampled on arrival” rather than at source.
The report attributes the breaches to poor agricultural practice, including approved products used on unauthorised crops, incorrect doses or too many applications, and substances not approved in the EU.