Overseas Pesticide Inspections Show 3x Increase in Residual Pesticide 'Non-compliance' in Coriander and Spinach

Expanded Inspection Items Increased Non-compliance Cases from 37 to 82
Among 82 Cases, 44 in Wholesale Markets, 22 in Marts and Department Stores
Perilla Leaves, Spinach, Sesame Leaves, Lettuce, Cheonggyeongchae, Auk, etc.

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] As Seoul expanded the inspection items for pesticide residues in distributed agricultural products to include overseas pesticides, the non-compliance rate increased threefold compared to the previous year.

On the 28th, Seoul announced that as a result of expanding the pesticide residue inspection items for agricultural products to 470 types, including not only domestically registered pesticides but also overseas pesticides, the number of non-compliant items was 82 cases (34 items), more than double compared to the same period last year (37 cases). The non-compliance rate was 2.0%, three times higher than last year's 0.7%.

The agricultural products that were judged non-compliant include gosu (coriander), spinach, perilla leaves, lettuce, bok choy, and mallow. By distribution channel, there were 44 cases from Garak and Gangseo wholesale market auctioned agricultural products, 22 cases from distributed agricultural products such as marts, and 16 cases from school and daycare center meal agricultural products.

The non-compliant pesticides totaled 47 types: 30 insecticides including terbufos, 10 fungicides including carbendazim, 6 herbicides including pendimethalin, and 1 plant growth regulator, paclobutrazol.

Seoul conducted pesticide residue inspections on 4,004 cases of agricultural products distributed through Garak and Gangseo public wholesale markets, marts, department stores, and public meal ingredients for schools and daycare centers.

The agricultural and marine products in the wholesale markets were collected before auction by the Agricultural and Marine Products Safety Management Team and sent to the Health and Environment Research Institute for inspection, while agricultural products from marts, department stores, and public meal ingredients were collected by region and sent for inspection.

Agricultural products judged non-compliant were promptly seized on-site by the city's Food Collection and Recall Team and all were recalled and destroyed. Pre-inspections were also conducted on meal agricultural products supplied to schools and daycare centers to ensure that non-compliant products were not used in meals.

Shin Yongseung, Director of the Seoul Health and Environment Research Institute, said, "By expanding the pesticide residue inspection items this time, we have strengthened the safety management of agricultural products for citizens, and in the second half of the year, we will proactively conduct rapid inspections on agricultural products delivered early morning, which have recently grown rapidly."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.