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South Africa: Woolworths removes organic baby spinach from shelves

Woolworths’ organic baby spinach recently disappeared from the shelves, after its organic certification was called into question following several rounds of independent testing.

Responding to numerous requests since 2015 from consumers to test whether Woolworths’ organic vegetables live up to their organic claim‚ the Cape Town-based organisation TOPIC  (the Testing of Products Initiated by Consumers) had the retailer’s organic sweet potatoes and baby spinach products tested for pesticide residues.

The products are labelled with the BCS Öko-Garantie logo and the two farms which grow the organic sweet potatoes and baby spinach are certified under the European Organic Regulations.

While no pesticide residues were found on the organic sweet potatoes‚ very low levels of four pesticides were found on the organic spinach samples. Of those‚ three are allowed for use in organic farming but one‚ fluopyram‚ is a highly persistent fungicide which is not allowed in organic agriculture.

Woolworths questioned the result‚ as their supplier does not use the fungicide on its spinach: “We have no information as to how this might have got onto the spinach‚” the organisation said‚ ”but it was possibly contamination drift from a nearby field or during harvesting and processing."

Source: timeslive.co.za

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