Carbendazim in wine

People are full of fear of "pesticide residues." In fact, any kind of pesticide, as long as its residue is in compliance with regulations, can be completely ignored.

Some media selected some domestic wines for testing and found that they contained carbendazim. Carbendazim is an anti-fungus pesticide that is banned from use in the United States. As a result, "domestic wines cannot be drunk."

This is a typical "Chinese food news." First, the media just selected a few varieties for testing, and other products on the market are not included in the testing. The report also emphasized "domestic wines," which successfully gave the public the impression that "other brands, especially imported products, have not been detected." Second, only carbendazim and another pesticide were tested. However, in agricultural production, carbendazim is not irreplaceable. Without it, other pesticide products will also give the impression that there is no pesticide residue.

For a legal pesticide, it is necessary to compare the “detected content” and the “allowed residue” to make sense. Carbendazim is a low-toxic pesticide widely used by various countries in the world. China, Europe, Japan, and Brazil can legally use it. Although the "residual standards" formulated by various countries are not the same, there is a great safety margin. As long as it meets the standards, it can be considered that it will not endanger health.

The report ignored the overall situation of carbendazim, only emphasizing the information that the United States does not allow and "can cause cancer." The United States no longer included it on the list of permitted uses, not how dangerous it was, but because of alternative products. The replacement product is equivalent to its upgraded version, and its effective composition is not essentially different from it.

Carbendazim caused concern and began to be detected in orange juice in the United States at the beginning of the year. Because the United States does not allow use, detection is illegal. The FDA also issued an announcement at that time, stating that the amount of orange juice already listed is not enough to endanger health, so no recall is required. At that time, the content of orange juice was actually higher than that detected in this wine.

Probably to see more episodes of rural women drinking suicide in film and television dramas, people are full of fear of "pesticide residues." In fact, with the advancement of science and technology, the toxicity of pesticides is getting lower and lower, and the decomposition cycle is getting shorter and shorter. Any kind of pesticide, as long as its residual content meets the regulations, the "harm" of health is completely negligible. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture annually tests the pesticide residue content of fruits and vegetables. The test results for many years have been summarized. More than 93% of apples can detect at least one pesticide residue. In 2009, the detection rate was close to 98%. Moreover, there are a large number of organic apples in these apples. However, less than 0.3% of them exceed the prescribed limit, so no one thinks that "Apple can't eat it."

The carbendazim content detected in this wine is far below the "safety limit" and is not worth worrying. Relatively speaking, it is the alcohol in the wine that is more worthy of attention to health hazards.