New Zealand Greens urge tests on Chinese food

Aug 20, 2006, 14:51 GMT

Wellington - New Zealand's Green Party urged the government Sunday to introduce random tests of all food imported from China after the Greenpeace international environment watchdog claimed that it commonly contained toxic pesticides.

Member of Parliament Sue Kedgley noted that New Zealand imported 84 million New Zealand dollars (nearly 55 million US dollars) worth of fruit and vegetables from China last year and dubbed it 'extraordinary' that none was tested for pesticides.

She said tests by Greenpeace China between last November and April this year showed that 86 per cent of samples contained residues and 25 per cent contained residues of illegal pesticides, including the organochlorine Lindane, which is banned in many countries, including New Zealand, because of its environmental persistence.

Kedgley said Lindane was classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as being 'possibly carcinogenic' in humans and was a known endocrine disruptor, interfering with the hormones oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone.

But Paul Dansted, of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, said random testing would be a needle in a haystack approach and that scientists focused their attention on areas where they most likely to find problems.

He said past checks on imported Chinese pears and peanuts had shown no residues.