Pesticide residues in organic seeds – results of five year monitoring; [Pflanzenschutzmittelrückstände in Bio-Saatgut – Ergebnisse aus 5 Jahren Ökomonitoring]

The federal state Baden-Wuerttemberg (Germany) has initiated a unique monitoring program of organic seeds in the year 2010. The detection of pesticide residues in organic seeds sold by a retail chain were the reason for this program. The monitoring program aimed to monitor the load of pesticide residues in organic seeds, to detect faults in organic production, to disclose potential consumer fraud, to strengthen the consumer trust regarding the quality of organic seeds by establishing an effective control system and to pool data of pesticide residues in seeds. Between the year 2010 and 2014, 308 seed samples were analyzed (205 organic, 103 conventional). 114 samples (50 organic, 64 conventional) showed pesticide residues with a content of ≥ 0.010 mg/kg – mostly fungicides or insecticides. In some cases, the labelling “organic” of the concerned seed lot was prohibited due to our findings. © 2017, Bundesamt für Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit (BVL).