Protected to Eat Venture: 21.29% vegetable, fruit samples yield pesticide residues above permissible ranges

An evaluation of greens and fruits beneath the ‘Protected to Eat’ challenge overlaying Palakkad, Kannur and Kollam districts has revealed pesticide residues above permissible ranges in 21.29% of the examined samples.

The assessments by the Pesticide Residue Analysis and Analytical Laboratory (PRRAL), a Kerala Agricultural College (KAU) facility at Vellayani right here, discovered pesticide residues above the the restrict prescribed by the Meals Security and Requirements Authority of India/Codex (FSSAI/Codex) in 43 of 202 samples that had been collected and examined.

Twenty-eight vegetable samples and 15 fruit samples yielded pesticide residues, in response to the PRRAL report. The listed included okra, brinjal, capsicum, carrot, ginger, gooseberry, inexperienced chilli, potato, string beans, apple, sapota (chikoo), grapes, guava, mosambi, pomegranate, orange, strawberry, garlic and coriander leaves.

For the most recent version of the report, assessments had been carried out in 16 block panchayats, ten municipalities and two firms in Palakkad, Kannur and Kollam districts. They coated the interval from January to March 2025.

Exams revealed the presence of pesticides together with monocrotophos, acephate, profenofos, acetamiprid, chlorantraniliprole, fenvalerate, imidacloprid, quinalphos, clothianidin, lambda-cyhalothrin, omethoate, ethion, and the fungicides together with hexaconazole, fluopicolide, metalaxyl and tebuconazole.

The earlier report, which coated Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode and Wayanad districts based mostly on an October-December 2024 survey, had discovered pesticide residues above permissible ranges in 15.26% samples.

In 2023, the State Agriculture division had revamped the gathering of surveillance samples beneath the ‘Protected to Eat’ challenge. Below the brand new format, three districts are coated beneath every survey. The samples are collected by the Meals Security Division.