Agriculture Ministry says over 50% of crops tested last year had no pesticide residues

The Agriculture Ministry reports that just over half (55%) of all locally produced fruits, vegetables, and herbs tested last year had zero pesticide residues.

Another 37.3% had residues within the permitted range.

The ministry says that of the abnormalities found in 7.7% of samples, 0.9% of cases were minor, and were apparently explained by factors such as airborne pesticides from nearby fields, high sensitivity of the analytical equipment, or a very low deviation from the maximum permissible residue.

In around half the cases with abnormalities, they were caused by the use of products approved in Israel, but not for the specific crop sampled.

Sampled crops included mint, cherry, lettuce, coriander, parsley, basil, and celery.

The ministry’s Plant Protection and Inspection Service took 1,003 samples from 76 crops.

Zero abnormalities were found in crops such as avocado, watermelon, pear, persimmon, sweet potato, banana, onion, carrot, cabbage, cauliflower, loquat, almond, corn, date, potato, and apple.

Also coming up clean were grapes, tomatoes, peaches, melons, pomegranates, and garlic. During the 2023 tests, five to six percent of samples from these crops were found to have pesticide abnormalities. In the case of garlic, this reached 8.3%.

Of the 1,003 samples in the survey, about 41.5% were from vegetables and field crops, 43% from fruits (including citrus), and a further 15.5% from herbs such as basil, thyme, mint, coriander, rocket, parsley, and rosemary.