Pesticides are not only poisonous to insects, but also to human beings and the environment.
China produces more pesticide than any other country in the world and it has the highest level of pesticide use.
More than 75% of the fruits and vegetables in Hong Kong are imported from Mainland China.
Greenpeace has carried out careful investigations in Hong Kong supermarkets and revealed loopholes in their controls over fruits and vegetables imported from the mainland.
In November and December last year, Greenpeace conducted random checks on 51 samples of fruits and vegetables from 12 large supermarket chains in four cities: Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shenzhen. We tested flowering cabbage, spring cabbage, Chinese lettuce, Chieh-qua, Shatang mandarin and Gonggan. This is what we found out:
90% of the samples contained at least one type of pesticide residue
72% of the samples contained a cocktail of pesticide residues of at least four different types. A mix of pesticides is much more dangerous than a single chemical trace.
One spring cabbage from Hong Kong had nine types of pesticide residues.
11 samples showed traces of pesticides banned in China and/or the EU
Children at special risk
Last November, Greenpeace conducted random checks on 35 seasonal fruits and vegetables from five supermarkets in Beijing, Chengdu and Guangzhou. More than 85% of the samples contained pesticide residues
'Immersion cleaning can only remove some pesticide residues, therefore, the best way to prevent chemical pesticides from appearing on dining tables is to only buy organic fruits and vegetables.' Kate Lin, Greenpeace Campaigner