Must Read 41 percent of vegetables in Thai markets exceed contamination standards

[Paul Henry]

A bit of a missunderstanding about mode of action of most agri chemicals. Washing, peeling or boiling has little if any effect on removing chemical residues.Most chemicals used today are systemic or translaminar which means the chemical actualy goes into the flesh of the fruit or vegetable to control development of larvae or fungal spores on or within the produce.

Licencing and education at farmer and distributor level are the only answer to this problem. It is mandatory in many countries before you can sell,buy or use agricultural chemicals. Large fines are imposed on off label use which is the main cause of high residue limits

[keemapoot]

Actually, from an update on channel 3 news this morning, things are worse than in this article. 41% contamination at open markets, but over 60% contamination in food stores like Tops, Foodland, etc... Even those expensive "organic" section veggies tested positive for pesticides. I suppose the reason the stores have higher levels is that they are marketing a better looking product. The takeway from this is to make sure to wash veggies carefully (soak actually) in baking soda and vinegar, but there is a powdered product you can use which does the job too.  Nothing is safe. Also, the channel 3 newscast mentioned that the imported veggies and fruits of all types were found to be much lower in pesticides, and from experience, Makro has tons of these and is cheaper by far anyway.

[mike787]

Thailand is one big killing field: from CM's 4+ months of toxic burning smog to the highest international road kill stats, to toxic vegetables and women that rob and or kill you then immigration finishes you off if your still alive to black list your butt...welcome to the land of smiles.

 

...and don't forget your 90 days report to mom again!

[miamiman123]

Soak all for 14 mins in baking soda....likely 80% removal 

 

[FarFlungFalang]

2 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

12 types of banned chemicals were also discovered.

It seems so often to come back to lack of enforcement.How hard can it be for the authorities to simply enforce their rules?All one needs really is a little financial incentive,but I guess the people supplying provide more incentive.I don't think the changes for the better will occur until the concept of accountability is accepted.  

[legend49]

This news appears on about a 2 monthly cycle so we know about the pesticides. What we want to know is when are the authorities going to get off their asses and earn their income?

[Emdog]

I used to think it was a crap shoot regarding if you got pesticides etc in your food here.

Given these stats, I now consider more akin to a coin flip

[keemapoot]

1 minute ago, Emdog said:

I used to think it was a crap shoot regarding if you got pesticides etc in your food here.

Given these stats, I now consider more akin to a coin flip

Yeah, a coin flip assuming the coin is loaded on one side. I'd say 60% chance if you eat in restaurants or buy food from stores.

[essox essox]

2 hours ago, RobboR said:

And people were waxing lyrically about the healthiness of Thai food on a thread last week!

and now the so called ban re smoking in ones home!!!

[essox essox]

37 minutes ago, legend49 said:

This news appears on about a 2 monthly cycle so we know about the pesticides. What we want to know is when are the authorities going to get off their asses and earn their income?

answer is simple NEVER......

[ricardofel]

Just another reason why my 5 year old son & I left Thailand 6 years ago. Probably gave him another 20 years of life....me as well!!!

What I have heard from reliable sources is that "organic" farmers take their products to the authorizing government agency, get their products "certified" as organic....and then just use chemicals on their crops and sell them as organic. There is NO oversight!

[mikebell]

The vegetarian Eric Bahrt must be squirming in his soon-to-be-occupied grave.

[Antonymous]

While washing your veggies in various solutions will help, by far the most effective method of removing toxic residues is to ozonate them before consumption.

 

An ozone generator specifically for this use (NOT an air purifier) costs a few thousand baht and can eliminate 96-99.9% of pesticides (depending on which machine you buy).

 

We grow much of our own organic food, but ozonate everything we buy.

 

Place veggies in a bowl of water, place the diffuser from the machine into the bowl of water and ozonate for 15 mins. That's all it takes. Another benefit is that the veggies perk up and last longer afterwards.

[silver sea]

4 minutes ago, Antonymous said:

While washing your veggies in various solutions will help, by far the most effective method of removing toxic residues is to ozonate them before consumption.

 

An ozone generator specifically for this use (NOT an air purifier) costs a few thousand baht and can eliminate 96-99.9% of pesticides (depending on which machine you buy).

 

We grow much of our own organic food, but ozonate everything we buy.

 

Place veggies in a bowl of water, place the diffuser from the machine into the bowl of water and ozonate for 15 mins. That's all it takes. Another benefit is that the veggies perk up and last longer afterwards.

 

Out of interest, where can you buy an “ozone generator” in Thailand please? HomePro?

 

When you say that the cost is a few thousand baht? What do you mean? 5000?

[bluesofa]

2 hours ago, Lungstib said:

If this is the result with food for the home market how does Thailand manage exports without it getting refused? I live among mango and orange orchards and the spraying is bad enough that we can smell it from a long way off. These places operate tractor towed spray tanks with what must be hundreds of litres of chemicals. The little guys we see all day long on m'bikes with tanks on their backs heading off to small holdings. Its a way of life and I see no education or ideas coming through to stop it. Those 3 favourite chemicals that still haven't yet been banned make up 80% of all thats sold in the agricultural shops.

I'm glad you've mentioned those three deadly chemicals. The ones that aren't going to be banned any time soon, but will continue to be sold, because buyers 'will receive training on safe use'. Yeah, right.
 

Safe use for the buyers of those three chemicals - don't make me laugh. What about the buyers of the end product as the consumer?

This is the land of irresponsibility, where everything is always someone else's fault.

 

It might be interesting if the EU started to test produce from Thailand to be imported in to the EU. I'm surprised nothing has been said about it so far.

Unless of course, there's some underhand dealing going on, where maybe chemical-free produce is sent for export?

 

[keemapoot]

1 minute ago, silver sea said:

 

Out of interest, where can you buy an “ozone generator” in Thailand please? HomePro?

 

When you say that the cost is a few thousand baht? What do you mean? 5000?

Just did a quick search on lazada found this one for 1400

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/ozone-generator-n231-white-i5638283-s6973963.html?spm=a2o4m.searchlist.list.1.4ba8fb56LjoEvd&search=1

[Beggar]

This healthy Thai food. On top of it rice is unhealthy because of arsenic. 

[Antonymous]

1 minute ago, silver sea said:

 

Out of interest, where can you buy an “ozone generator” in Thailand please? HomePro?

 

When you say that the cost is a few thousand baht? What do you mean? 5000?

 

 

We bought ours from a Thai company called Thailand Juicer years ago for about 3,000 baht from memory. Still going strong, used every day. I have nothing to do with that company and don't know if they still make them, but you can try Lazada or Google it to find other suppliers. Get the best you can afford.

 

 

[Moonlover]

1 hour ago, miamiman123 said:

Soak all for 14 mins in baking soda....likely 80% removal 

 

Do you have a reliable reference for that gem of wisdom please?

[ianezy0]

ae

[FarFlungFalang]

4 minutes ago, Beggar said:

This healthy Thai food. On top of it rice is unhealthy because of arsenic. 

What arsenic is that?

[whaleboneman]

2 hours ago, maxisrael said:

One if the reasons we planted our own veggies and have a  large hydroponic greenhouse  for our family where  we grow several types of salads melons and tomato even chillies, it's nice to have two rai of land...... 

We have a large fishpond as well where we grow tilapia the natural way without hormones to grow them fast so it takes one year to a size of about 800 gram instead of 6 months and we added around 1000 juvenile fish last year and they  breed well so plenty of stock. ????

Nice. Got a guesthouse there you want to rent?

[fishtank]

10 minutes ago, keemapoot said:

Just did a quick search on lazada found this one for 1400

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/ozone-generator-n231-white-i5638283-s6973963.html?spm=a2o4m.searchlist.list.1.4ba8fb56LjoEvd&search=1

Even cheaper.  https://www.lazada.co.th/products/ozone-generator-air-water-purifier-sterilizer-fruit-vegetables-sterilization-ozonatoreu-plug-i268844033-s421005177.html?spm=a2o4m.pdp.recommendation_2.1.7a615da9GYnVhK&mp=1&clickTrackInfo=a8f9b8ae-58ae-455f-8cac-d8f2f7787483__268844033__9955__trigger2i__124582__0.773__0.755573__0.0__0.4244601__7.5999997E-4__0.95557296__0__1__PDPV2V__244__null__null__0__&scm=1007.16389.126158.0

[FarFlungFalang]

1 minute ago, ianezy0 said:

41% seems to be very accurate, yet they don't identify the 59% that are safest to eat.

They would be the ones without the chemicals on them!I'm not sure if the chemicals are only on specific types of veggies or on all of them as in 41% of all tomatoes 41% of all cabbages and so on.

[whaleboneman]

6 minutes ago, FarFlungFalang said:

What arsenic is that?

The one that kills you. Is there any other?

[Srikcir]

2 hours ago, observer90210 said:

Ok in that case where are the rest of the 59% that are assumed to be "clean" for consumption?.... reserved for "others" ?

They're probably labeled "Organically Grown."

[bluesofa]

14 minutes ago, ianezy0 said:

41% seems to be very accurate, yet they don't identify the 59% that are safest to eat.

I can't imagine that it would have been anything else except 41% of the total sample sent. Obviously I have nothing to support that, hence my use of 'imagine'.

I notice they sent all the samples abroad (to the UK) to avoid 'corrupt' results by intimidation of the testing facility staff.

 

[Antonymous]

6 minutes ago, FarFlungFalang said:

They would be the ones without the chemicals on them!I'm not sure if the chemicals are only on specific types of veggies or on all of them as in 41% of all tomatoes 41% of all cabbages and so on.

Here ya go. From 2016. There's probably a later version.

 

[whaleboneman]

30 minutes ago, ricardofel said:

Just another reason why my 5 year old son & I left Thailand 6 years ago. Probably gave him another 20 years of life....me as well!!!

What I have heard from reliable sources is that "organic" farmers take their products to the authorizing government agency, get their products "certified" as organic....and then just use chemicals on their crops and sell them as organic. There is NO oversight!

Your son left when he was -1?

[Beggar]

15 minutes ago, FarFlungFalang said:

What arsenic is that?

If you google for rice and arsenic you will find a lot of information. I liked rice and didn't know this problem. In the meantime I try to avoid rice.