Sept. 15, 2022 – Many brands of fruit leathers, a popular children’s snackA new report by the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit organization that strives to improve the environment as well as human health, has shown that pesticide levels in some foods can be detected. Pesticide levels can also be detected in dried fruit snacks.
Today, it released the results in a document. “Fruit Leather: A snack often stuffed with pesticides, sugar and other chemicals.”
The Environmental Working Group’s bottom line: “Fresh fruit is always going to be better,” says Sydney Evans, a science analyst for the group and a report co-author. Dried fruit snacks are better than fruits leathers to reduce pesticide exposure. Organic is better than conventional or non-organic products, she states.
However, others condemned the report. “This fear mongering needs to stop,” says Teresa Thorne, executive director of the Alliance for Food and Farming, a nonprofit organization representing organic and conventional farmers growing Fruits and vegetables. She claims that the levels found are far below what is considered acceptable.
Report Details
Environmental Working Group required an independent laboratory to test 37 samples organic and nonorganic fruit leathers of 10 brands. The lab also tested 30 dried fruits. snackFrom 16 brands. (Fruit leathers are made by dehydrating fruit puree into a sheet that’s shiny with a leather-like texture.)
Evans states that none of the tested samples were above the federally established tolerance levels for pesticides. The group disagrees.
According to the Environmental Working Group, which receives funding from the Environmental Working Group, pesticides were detected in 26 of the nonorganic (conventional), fruit leather samples tested. Organic food companies.
Some organic products had higher pesticide levels than conventional products. For instance, Trader Joe’s Organic Apple Strawberry Fruit Wrap had 247 parts per billion (ppb) of pesticide concentration, while Bob Snail Apple-Strawberry Stripe, a conventional product, had 106 ppb.
Stretch Island Raspberry fruit leather had 17 pesticides in it, which was the most among all leathers. When the researchers looked at the total amount of pesticides, also known as total pesticide concentration, samples from That’s It, Stretch Island, and Trader Joe’s had the highest total concentration, on average.
Pesticides that are most frequently found were fludioxonil and pyrimethanil. thiabendazole, and the insecticide Acetamiprid. Pesticide exposure has been linked with cancer, hormone disruption, and reproductive problems. Nervous systemEffects, birth defects, and other problems.
“For me, the takeaway is [that] fresh fruit is always going to be better” if given a choice between that, the fruit leathers, and dried fruit, Evans says. If that’s not an option, she recommends choosing dried fruit snacks over the fruit leathers. Environmental Working Group analysis of 30 dried fruit products. cranberriesThe highest pesticide levels were detected in dates, figs and mangoes. However, the lowest levels were found in raisins, dried strawberries, cherries and apples.
Evans states that fruit strips containing the highest levels pesticides were often made with apples as their first ingredient. Apples are No. 5 on the 2022 “Dirty Dozen” list, the annual ranking of Fruits and vegetablesThe most pesticides that were produced by the group.
The process of dehydrating fruit to make the fruit leathers also “drastically increases the concentration of natural Sugar the snack contains,” the group says, resulting in far more SugarYou will get more fresh fruit per serving than you would if you bought a similar-sized portion. It recommends that you avoid fruit leathers and dried fruits with added sugars or additives like flavor enhancers, food color, and so on. corn syrup.
Federal Regulations
The Environmental Protection Agency Tolerance levelsFor pesticide residues on food. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Pesticide Data ProgramA national pesticide residue monitoring programme.
Other Perspectives
“Nothing they found is surprising,” says Kaci Buhl, an associate professor and director of the Pesticide Safety Education Program at Oregon State University Extension, Corvallis, who reviewed the report for WebMD.
The findings also don’t support advice to avoid the fruit leathers altogether, she says.
“Parents should not be concerned as long as fruit leathers are consumed in moderation as part of a varied and balanced diet,” Buhl says. She also notes that organic produce can be grown with pesticides.
Others raised concerns about discrepancies in the calculations. For instance, a That’s It Blueberry Fruit Bar, which is 35 grams (1.2 ounces), was found to have a total pesticide concentration of 3,541 ppb, while its Mini Blueberry Fruit Bar, at 20 grams (0.7 ounces), with the same ingredients, had a total pesticide concentration of 89.
Buhl says that the dried fruit snacks and fruit leather can be especially useful when fresh fruit is scarce for those who live far away from a local market.
“We need to stop scaring people away from the foods they enjoy, especially when they are healthy foods like Fruits and vegetables,” Thorne says.
On the alliance’s consumer information site,Its pesticide calculator calculates that a child can eat. 334 servings per day of apple with no ill effects of pesticides “even if the apple has the highest pesticide residue recorded for apple by the USDA.”
WebMD reached to companies for comment. Stretch Island did not respond, and That’s It declined to comment on the findings.
