Overview
- EFSA’s monitoring, published Tuesday, names grapes, strawberries and oranges as the fruits most likely to carry residues.
- In Spain, an NGO’s read of 2024 control data found residues in 46% of foods, rising to 69.5% in fruit and 38% in vegetables.
- Many samples held mixes of chemicals, with about 32% showing multiple pesticides and some grapes containing up to 14.
- The same Spanish dataset logged 59 pesticides not approved in the EU and flagged endocrine disruptors and persistent PFAS.
- Officials say about 99% of samples met maximum residue limits, which are legal ceilings set for single pesticides used as directed, and EFSA reports more than 125,000 samples checked with 5.5% of non‑EU imports over the limit.