The salads wouldn't be that green. Published this Thursday, a study carried out by
60 Million consumers
reveals that, of the references of lamb's lettuce, lettuce or iceberg sold in bags in supermarkets, only one salad in five is free from any contamination.
To arrive at this conclusion, the consumer defense magazine analyzed in the laboratory 26 references sold by both national brands such as Bonduelle, Florette, or Les Crudettes, and distributor brands such as Aldi, Lidl, Carrefour, Monoprix but also Intermarché and E. Leclerc. As a result, out of all the salads tested, only five showed no trace of pesticide contamination.
Also read: Pesticides jeopardize the effectiveness of certain drugs
Organic salads also contaminated
“Among the others, 28 different molecules were detected, 8 are suspected of having carcinogenic or reprotoxic properties
,” warns the magazine.
“The quantities found are within the regulatory limits, even for the highest of the test,”
notes
60 Million Consumers
.
In other words, there is – theoretically – no health risk. But to date, scientists know almost nothing about the cocktail effects between all these molecules.
Bagged salads are regularly subject to recalls. And for good reason, salad shoots are particularly fragile and sensitive to pests such as aphids and slugs, which forces farmers to use phytosanitary products to protect their crops. The study also reveals that salads labeled organic are contaminated by pesticides. Without having been sprayed on the shoots, they could persist in the crop soils.