How to reduce or eliminate pesticide residues

As evidenced by recent surveys, the presence of pesticide residues in food is a subject of growing concern to the public in the European Union and the countries of their trading environment. 

Furthermore, the Directorate of Health and Consumer Protection (European Commission) has published on its website the report of food scares in 2005. On page 11 of this report describes the frequency of the main causes, among which are natural contaminants such as mycotoxins or potentially pathogenic microorganisms. Contamination by substances produced by man is less frequent, with notices of warnings, more frequent migration of substances from packaging (5 percent) that alerts plant waste (1 percent).

But that said, it may be desirable to reformulate the question is it really necessary to use chemical pesticides in agriculture?, the answer is very simple to answer, not only by the reports issued by FAO, but also according to studies conducted in the universities of Bonn and Kiel on eight major crops worldwide, plant losses health due to problems estimated around 42 percent of production, but in the absence of chemical protection could rise to 70 percent.

All of these reasons, which sometimes are of growing concern among European consumers, have moved to the Editorial Phytoma to contact D. Ramón Ramón Coscolla, Dr. and Agricultural Engineer, and the expert in our country on the issue of pesticide residues in fruit and vegetables, to address in this book entitled 'How to reduce or eliminate pesticide residues in fruits, vegetables and processed food”, work that, with his usual thoroughness, reliability and clarity, answers all those questions that are often made both technical and consumers about pesticides, their dangerousness, on the conditions for authorizing the use of a product, the problem generated by their residues in food, as well as ways to reduce waste.

But 'How to reduce or eliminate pesticide residues in fruits, vegetables and processed food' does not forget other issues of concern such as difference between hazard and risk, or if pesticide residues are the major cause that affects the safety of our food, what the laws say about waste, how it monitors and controls the content of waste, question after question.

Because, in a simple manner, with a clear popular-didactic character, and very rigorous, the book is structured in seven Chapters grouping affinity questions by topic. The reader will not only be clear about what are the chemical pesticides, their dangerousness or their waste, but also may know, among other things, whether the metabolites or degradation of a pesticide may be more toxic than the active pesticide.

In this way, authors are husking to answer a series of questions like: Do all fruits and vegetables have pesticide residues? What depends on the amount of waste? Are there any plant products that may present a higher content of waste? How diminished domestic waste treatment? How much waste is removed by washing? What amount of peeling fruits and vegetables reduce the amount of waste?

Source: Phytoma

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