Over half of bread sampled contains pesticides

13th March 2008, 10:08am

A latest review from the Government’s Pesticides Residues Committee (PRC) has revealed that over half of bread sampled contained pesticides.

Almost a quarter of samples of bread contained multiple pesticides. This is a 3% increase of the number of samples containing pesticides from the last time bread was sampled by the PRC in 2006.

A range of factors including changes in wheat varieties, milling methods and baking technology have made industrial bread indigestible for significant numbers of people.

Further PRC results show that no organic samples of the foods tested contained pesticides.

Emma Hockridge, Soil Association policy campaigner, commented: "We want to see a resurgence in good quality bread from traditional British milling varieties. This will add value and nutritional goodness to bread naturally. Increasing consumption of good quality bread made from traditional wheat could also bring huge opportunities for British farmers."

The Soil Association is supporting the new Real Bread Campaign, headed by Andrew Whitley, chair of the Soil Association's Processing Standards Committee.

The Food Standards Agency is proposing to fortify all bread with folic acid.

Weblink: www.soilassociation.org

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pitts

13 March 2008 at 11:27am

Well that may be so, but without the use of fungicides and fertilizers wheat would not be £150 per tonne, but probably £500, even if it was available. Everyone is living much longer so it can't be the bad news that the so called "organic" brigade would have us believe!

James

13 March 2008 at 12:54pm

It is important to know what pesticides we are talking about. I understand that all those used in agriculture nowadays are very safe compared to years ago with LD50's way below many household goods... If it is traces of non harmful chemicals then do not make too much of a fuss as Pitt is quite correct, without them we would not be able to afford bread!

David

13 March 2008 at 5:35pm

Narrow minded views such as that of the soil association add nothing to the debate surrounding how farmers are supposed to feed the worlds growing population. Modern day pesticides are the most tested chemicals on earth, and the residues they find are not health threatening. Organic wheat is hard to grow to a milling quality, and yields under half of normal varieties. Mycotoxin producing fungal spores present dangers to those who eat it. As Pitt so rightly points out the lack of supply resulting from an organic farming world would create super high wheat prices. Farmers are only just managing to feed the world at present. What would result would be mass famine and civil war. Save the world : don't listen to the soil association

David

13 March 2008 at 9:56pm

An incomplete report to start with. There will only be minute quantities, and as Professor Anthony Trewavas FRS pointed out "a LITTLE of every poison is good for you", it builds your immune system. And as Lord Dick Taverne pointed out in his book "The March of Unreason", "organic farming will not feed the World"

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