Turkish sweet peppers exceed methomyl MRL

A shipment with fresh sweet peppers coming from Turkey was rejected and destroyed at the Bulgarian border on Tuesday November 1. According to a report on the European Commission's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, the Turkish sweet peppers exceeded the maximum residue levels for methomyl, a toxic insecticide that is available for restricted use. According to the report on the RASFF website, the shipment was classified as a serious risk.

The peppers were destroyed and never reached the market, says the report on the RASFF portal.

It is not the first time this year that the Bulgarian border has intercepted a shipment with Turkish sweet peppers. According to the RASFF, three other shipments with sweet peppers from Turkey exceeded maximum residue levels for chlorpyrifos, a toxic agricultural insecticide.

Two of the shipments were intercepted on September 10 and one shipment was sampled on August 26. In June this year a shipment with Turkish sweet peppers exceeded the MRLs for deltramethrin, an agriculture insecticide that is neurotoxic to humans.

The RASFF portal enables information to be shared efficiently between its members (EU-28 national food safety authorities, Commission, EFSA, ESA, Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Switzerland) and provides a round-the-clock service to ensure that urgent notifications are sent, received and responded to collectively and efficiently.