“Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food”: and doctors and nutritionists have followed this principle for centuries. But food is not always medicine, it can also be poison for our body if it is a food that comes from cultivation practices that do not comply with health regulations. And unfortunately these junk foods do not come only from Asian or African countries..
The alarm raised by Coldiretti at the XIX International Forum on Agriculture and Food is impressive: in Italy almost un food alarm per day. In 2020 they were sent in fact well 297 notifications to the European Union. Fifty-six of these (19%) concerned products with national originale, while well 160 concerned products from other states of the European Union (54%) to 81 from non-EU countries (27%). This is what emerges from the dossier "The black list of the most dangerous foods” presented by Coldiretti at the XIX International Agriculture and Food Forum on the basis of the findings of the latest report of the European Rapid Alert System (RASFF), which registers the alarms for food risks verified due to chemical residues, mycotoxins, heavy metals, microbiological pollutants, dioxins o additives and colorants in the European Union in 2020.
Under accusation i Sesame seeds of India so fashionable for healthy salads, the chicken meat low cost from Poland, the Turkish fruits and vegetables, Brazilian black pepper: these are the most dangerous food products for health detected in the EU, which also include peanuts from the USA and Argentina, Turkish and Iranian pistachios and French oysters, according to Coldiretti elaborations on Rassf data.
In general, at the top of the ranking of the countries from which the most contaminated foods come are the India, responsible for 12% of food alarms triggered in Europe, la Turkey with 10% and the Poland (10%) but concerns also come from France (6%), Holland (6%) and from China (6%).
An emergency therefore that does not only concern developing countries but which, due to the effect of the globalization of trade and the downward competition on prices, also extends to the richest ones. The greatest dangers came from sesame seeds from India, very fashionable in healthy salads, due to the presence of ethylene oxide, and from Polish chicken meat with salmonella, but fruit is also on the risk podium and vegetables imported from Turkey due to the presence of pesticide residues. In the food black list - explains Coldiretti - there are also Brazilian black pepper at risk of salmonella, dried figs from Turkey due to the high carcinogenic aflatoxins as well as peanuts from the USA and Argentina, Turkish and Iranian pistachios while French oysters have been identified contaminations by norovirus responsible for gastroenteriti.
Moreover, these are not negligible quantities: Italy imported 7 million euros of sesame seeds from India in 2020 for a total of almost 5 million kilos, while 14 million kilos of chicken meat arrived from Poland for an amount of over 20 million euros and the import of fruit and vegetables from Turkey has reached as much as 416 million euros, according to the analysis by Coldiretti on Istat data.
In the face of this growing threat, the request for a ban on the entry into national markets of products from countries without social, safety and health rules similar to those of Italy and the EU is spreading more and more among Italian public opinion. According to the vast majority of citizens, it is useless to impose ever stricter laws on Italian companies if unscrupulous companies or entire productive sectors from other countries without similar laws are then allowed to invade the Italian market with bargain prices, perhaps exploiting the use of semi-slave labor or juvenile or, even, to productions that do not respect the criteria of environmental sustainability.
"It is necessary to ensure that imports of products from third countries respect the same social, health and environmental standards as Italian and European productions" says the president of Coldiretti Ettore Prandini in underlining the importance that the EU ensures the principle of reciprocity in trade relations .
THE MOST DANGEROUS FOODS PAESE MOTIVATION
· sesame seeds (296 cases) India Ethylene oxide
· chicken meat (273) Poland Salmonella
· fruits and vegetables (190) Türkiye Pesticides
· black pepper (61) Brazil Salmonella
· dried figs (58) Türkiye Aflatoxins
· peanuts (49) Use Aflatoxins
· Pistachios (39) Türkiye Aflatoxins
· Oysters (33) France Norovirus
· Pistachios (29) Iran Aflatoxins
· Peanuts (29) Argentina Aflatoxins
Source: Coldiretti elaborations on Rassf Report 2021 data
