Sep 29 - New Zealand consumers have no need to worry about chemical residues in their diet, further test results from the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) show.
NZFSA today released the second quarter results for the Total Diet Study (TDS). The five-yearly study puts more than 120 commonly eaten foods into the lab to assess New Zealanders’ dietary exposure to residues of chemical residues, contaminants and selected nutrients.
“Now that we have looked at all the 123 foods we will be sampling in this year’s study, it reinforces initial indications that the average New Zealand diet poses no health concerns from chemical residues,” project manager Cherie Flynn says.
The second quarter of the study looked at 62 nationally available foods that were prepared for eating – for example meat cooked and bananas peeled – before being tested. Of more than 60,000 analyses, only two areas will be investigated further.
One was a non-compliant tomatoes-in-juice product made from New Zealand and Italian tomatoes, which had residues of the insecticide methamidophos slightly above the maximum residue limit of 0.1mg/kg.
The other was higher than expected levels of lead in domestically produced bran flakes. Cherie Flynn says the products in question don’t pose any health concerns. “Even if the bran cereal was the only cereal a person was eating it would only amount to between three and 12% of the provisionally tolerable weekly intake for lead.”
However, as higher than expected lead levels were found in breads in the first quarter and in bran flakes this time, Cherie Flynn says it is an area that will be further investigated. “Because lead was detected in two grain-based products, we will be including wheat in the Food Residues Surveillance Programme (FRSP) that we carry out towards the end of this year.” The FRSP is an annual study that assesses the effectiveness of chemical residue controls on imported and locally-produced foods.
NZFSA has notified the manufacturers of the bran flakes products and the tomatoes-in-juice so they can check their quality controls.
As with the first quarter results, fish and seafood showed the expected higher levels of arsenic and mercury than other categories of food. Cherie Flynn says this is because some species of fish are inherently higher in those compounds because of their long life and diet. “Even at the levels we have detected, these foods would pose no health concerns.” The results for arsenic and mercury are comparable to what was found in the last TDS.
Of the foods sampled for the second quarter, Cherie Flynn says it is pleasing to see that none had residues of the now banned insecticide endosulfan. “From the sampling that we are doing, it appears that endosulfan is not being used in New Zealand since ERMA New Zealand prohibited its use in January.”