THE EUROPEAN HEALTH ALERT NETWORK, RASFF, HAS PUBLISHED AN ALERT FOR CONTAMINATION WITH ETHEPHON.

The Agrarian organization ASAJA regrets that Dutch farmers are carrying out these maneuvers that are completely contrary to good agricultural practices. And the worst thing is the consent that is given by the supermarkets in northern Europe when the alert comes from a neighboring country.. If it had happened in Spain, the crisis would already be of the dimensions of the one suffered by false cucumbers, point.

 

The Health Alert Network has published an alert for Dutch tomato with ethephon in the country itself. In this sense and, according to the network itself, The countries where these tomatoes have been distributed have been Germany, Holland and Russia, Therefore, these Dutch tomatoes contaminated with ethephon have not been marketed in Spain..

According to the EU's Rapid Alert System, it has been Holland itself that has given the alert about a batch of tomato from its own country that has been destined for destruction since these tomatoes have tested positive for containing 1,8 pm/mg.

From the agrarian organization they suspect that due to the end of the harvest in Holland, This phytoregulator could be used to accelerate the maturation of the product and finish production as soon as possible.. This active substance belongs to the group of growth regulators and, as reflected in the official record of the Ministry of Agriculture, It does not currently have authorization for its use in tomatoes..

For this reason, ASAJA recommends that supermarkets and European consumers consume tomatoes from Spain that are grown with the greatest respect for the environment and rigor in food safety., all of this guaranteed by the increase to close to 100% of the use of integrated and ecological control in this crop in the current campaign, which makes it have a differentiating value compared to its competitors.

In addition, this organization requests greater control of exports from Third Countries, since the lightness of these controls allows the entry of products that do not comply with the minimum health requirements required for agri-food products intended for consumption..

Such is the case of China, which has also caused alarm when the presence of the Hepatitis A virus was found in vats with frozen strawberries, or what has recently happened with Brazilian oranges, warned in this case by the EU itself of the need to improve its controls at origin on its exports due to the strong presence of pests in its oranges.

In the opinion of ASAJA, Europe has a lot at stake in its food policy and especially in security issues in a global market tending toward liberalization, which is why it is very important to convey firmness and rigor at our borders., since only in this way can we guarantee the safety of what millions of Europeans eat every day.

Furthermore, ASAJA requests that these border controls be extended to trade agreements., since in recent days we have been witnessing a new breach by Morocco of the new agreement that has been in force for just over a month and which, due to the entry of a greater quantity of product in recent weeks and the sale of tomato below the established minimum price, has caused our prices at origin to fall by more than one 30%.

This health alert occurs when the tomato campaign is ending in Holland and while in Spain the prices of this product are very low., due to the excess quota that Morocco is introducing into the European Union.