Why do national standards often show "large scale"

Recently, the CCTV financial channel "is it true" broadcast a group of reports about strawberries, saying that eight strawberries randomly bought by this group of reporters in Beijing were detected to contain chlorothalonil and Acetochlor. The program said that the former content meets the national standard, while the latter is not registered in the national strawberry residue standard, but compared with the EU standard, some strawberries exceed the standard by six times. According to experts, Acetochlor has been listed as a class B2 carcinogen in the United States, such as long-term consumption of Acetochlor residual food, may lead to Acetochlor metabolite poisoning, carcinogenic.

What is Acetochlor? Can you still eat strawberries? Acetochlor is a commonly used herbicide, which was first invented in the United States and is used in many countries, including the United States. Acetochlor is not unique to China.

Compared with American standards, China has stricter regulations on the use of Acetochlor, which is only allowed in brown rice, corn, soybeans, peanuts and rapeseed, and the residue limit is lower.

However, the scope of use of Acetochlor in China and the United States does not include strawberries. If it is really used, it is illegal and should be severely cracked down on.

Suspicious points of Acetochlor detected in strawberries

However, there are also some doubts about Acetochlor detected in strawberries in this report.

First, Acetochlor is a pre-bud herbicide, which is generally used before crop budding, and the degradation period of Acetochlor is very short, usually only a few days, and there is generally no high residue in strawberries when they are ripe.

Second, Acetochlor also does some harm to strawberry seedlings, if you use too much, it will also kill strawberry seedlings. Farmers can hardly use large doses in the planting process, otherwise it will kill the seedlings of strawberries and directly affect the harvest.

Third, now strawberry cultivation, most of the ground is covered with plastic film, mainly for fear of strawberry mildew after touching the ground, reducing the quality and yield. Another effect of film mulching is to inhibit the growth of weeds. Basically, weeds under the film cannot grow and hardly need herbicides.

Therefore, it is very strange to detect such a high level of Acetochlor in strawberries, and the possibility of error cannot be ruled out.

Do you need to worry about the safety of strawberries?

The acute oral toxicity LD50 (median lethal dose) of Acetochlor in rats was 2.59g. Even the strawberries with the highest detection value (0.367 mg / kg) had to eat more than 7 tons at a time to reach the toxic dose.

In fact, the class B2 carcinogen classification of Acetochlor is the standard used by the EPA before 1996, and now the classification of Acetochlor is "an indication of the possibility of carcinogenesis, but there is no sufficient research to confirm it".

According to media reports, the highest detection value of Acetochlor residue was 0.367ppm. It was reported that eating a large number of strawberries with excessive agricultural residues for a "long time" would cause poisoning and cancer. However, how much will it take?

According to the Chinese standard, the ADI (allowable daily intake) of Acetochlor is 0.02mg/kg bw. According to this reference value, an adult with a weight of 60kg has to eat 3.27kg of this strawberry per day to exceed the safe range.

In more stringent Europe (the European Union does not allow the use of Acetochlor), the EFSA estimates that the ADI of Acetochlor is 0.0036mg/kg bw/day, a 60kg adult who eats 580g of strawberries a day.

So, before you worry about insecurity, take a look at how many strawberries you eat every day.