In just one month European Food and Feed System (Rasff)issued two health warnings related to watermelons in Spain. The first was for import and the second for export. However, in both cases it was due to pesticide contamination.
The first warning was issued by Rasff at the end of July and concerned some watermelons. brought from Morocco. In this case, the infection was methomyl, a pesticide completely banned in Europe due to its great toxicity to humans. As for the second, although it comes from the notice given Netherlands Also in July, he was released from Rasff this week on August 9th. This time the fruits were harvested in Spain and contaminated flonicamid. This pesticide is legal, but at much lower doses than those that have been found.
For this reason, affected watermelons were withdrawn from sale. However, as they allege in Facua, consumers were not given information about specific batches so they could avoid consuming them if they bought them. We’ll have to wait until more information comes out. In the meantime, it’s worth asking one question: what’s going on with watermelons?
Fierce fight for watermelons
The country with the highest watermelon production is China. In fact, it is considered that two-thirds watermelons consumed in the world come from this country. they follow him Türkiye, Iran, Brazil and Uzbekistan. However, in general, Mediterranean countries have a large production of this fruit.
In accordance with Statisticsmade in Spain in 2021 1.3 million tons of watermelons, being Andalusia, with 794,500 tons, the autonomous community with the highest production. He 80% production this is for domestic consumption and 20% is exported. However, Spain must compete with Italy, Türkiye and Greece. However, crop loss due to the pest can be a serious problem that can be prevented with the help of pesticides.
Discord pesticides
Methomyl is a pesticide from the carbamate group, very effective, but also very dangerous. And the fact is that it is not only dangerous for insect pests. It can also cause symptoms in humans, as serious as headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, increased sweating, tremors, muscle weakness and blurred vision. In addition, in combination with alcohol, it can cause paralysis of the central and peripheral nervous system and kidney failure.
Because of this, it is banned almost all over the world and is usually used only on crops. alfalfa for food
For some reason, this pesticide was applied to watermelons harvested in Morocco, so there was a problem urgent alert. At the moment, it does not appear that people have been seriously affected.
As for the warning associated with watermelons harvested in Spain, it was caused by an excess of flonicamid. This pesticide is not banned. However, the maximum allowable dose is 0.4 mg/kg-h/ppmwhile when distributed in the Netherlands, the dose 0.74 mg/kg-h/ppm
Safety Data Sheets for this pesticide contain no alarming toxicity data. Therefore, it is not comparable to what could happen with methomyl contamination. Therefore, there should be no panic, although it is important to remove affected watermelons from the market. The ideal would be to have more information about it. And it lies in the fact that, no matter how you have to fight with all possible means against pests that can destroy the crop, this cannot be done at any cost. Watermelons are a good example of this.
Source: Hiper Textual
