Hyderabad: Curry leaves, a necessary ingredient in almost every day-to-day recipes, is highly pesticide-ridden, says Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. The herb, a regular flavour found in the Indian kitchen, comes with a high percentage of pesticides revealed FSSAI.

In a recent study, the entity envisaged to monitor pesticide residues in various food commodities found that 71% of curry leaves in India (herbs) purchased from local markets are contaminated. The report also reveals that all detected pesticides were non-approved by FSSAI, primarily because curry leaves are usually sold without label claim. The body analysed a total of 616 samples of curry leaves, and pesticide residues were detected in 438 samples.

Spices

The second to fall in the list after curry leaves are your Indian spices. Kitchen spices such as cardamom, black pepper, cumin, fennel seed, fenugreek seed, dry ginger, coriander seed and red chilli powder, showed the second-highest pesticide revenue. The study revealed that 54.8% of the samples contained pesticide residues, out of which 53.7% had residues of non-approved pesticides.

Rice

Rice, the staple diet of South-Indian states, ranks third in the number of pesticide residues found. Out of the 1,177 rice samples analysed, pesticide residues were detected in 256 samples (21.7%) while non-approved pesticide residues were detected in 65 samples (5.5%). Samples of vegetables, rice and spices were frequently found beyond FSSAI Maximum Residual Limits (MRL).

Tea

The tea that you make in the morning hasn’t exceeded the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s MRL for pesticides. The body tested various food Samples in India and found that tea, meat, eggs, water, fish and other marine food products were safe.

Among the total 23,660 samples analysed across 12 states and New Delhi, 19.1% of the samples detected pesticide residues, while the residues in 2% of the samples were found exceeding FSSAI MRL. The sample consisted of vegetables, fruits, spices, curry leaves, red chilli powder, rice, wheat, pulses, milk, fish/marine, tea, meat, egg, and water from retail outlets, APMC markets, mother dairy, organic outlets and farm gate collected from 27 laboratories across the country for testing.

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