Anyone who thinks that the food in Thailand is healthy as well as tasty should read Bangkok Post more often. Research shows that 64 percent of vegetables sold in malls and markets are heavily contaminated with toxic pesticides. This is according to a study by the Thailand Pesticide Alert Network.
In many cases the MRL limit is exceeded (maximum residue limit). There are also many things wrong with fruit, grapes, pineapple and papaya also appear to be contaminated.
Chemical pesticides, pesticides or biocides are substances used to control diseases, pests or weeds in agriculture. The greatest health hazard is when pesticide residues are left on food crops. That is why, for example, fruit should not be sprayed shortly before harvest.
Opponents of pesticide use believe there is a link between the rise in diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's, allergic reactions and ADHD and the use of pesticides.
Source: Bangkok Post
About this blogger
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Known as Khun Peter (62), lives alternately in Apeldoorn and Pattaya. In a relationship with Kanchana for 14 years. Not yet retired, have my own company, something with insurance. Crazy about animals, especially dogs and music.
Enough hobbies, but unfortunately little time: writing for Thailandblog, fitness, health and nutrition, shooting sports, chatting with friends and some other oddities.
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On many of my bike rides, all over Thailand, in September and October, just before harvesting, I saw plenty of farmers who were spraying their crops with very large, but also primitive installations.
And I don't think with honorable vitamin supplements. That little rain that falls afterwards cannot possibly wash off the mess. But if the Thai has health problems, he just goes to the "pharmacy" and they stuff them in turn with all kinds of pills! So the circle is complete again. But I, as a “vegetable eater”, but not a vegetarian, also get it on my plate! Ahaan aroi!!
Peer
Have written this many times on this site fingers away from Thai food. Then you often get a response, but I don't suffer from anything. Well.
Can only emphasize once again, spend a little more money and buy imported frozen vegetables at Big C (the French brand Casino) or at Tops (the French brand Carrefour). In any case, you are sure that this meets the EU standards for health.
And emphatically, for God's sake, leave the fish Pangasius alone. This is rightfully packed with everything you don't want in your body!
Wonderful, I am also wary of all that sprayed rubbish here in Thailand.
Even my partner sprays it on the cauliflower, long beans, etc
But how can you be so sure that the DV vegetables from Carrefour or Casino are free of these kinds of chemicals?
Vegetables from Thailand are viewed with suspicion in Europe for the aforementioned reason and are usually refused.
European frozen vegetables, fish and fruit must comply with (stricter) European regulations. Know that this is also cheated, but think that this import is nevertheless a lot 'cleaner'. Carrefour and Casino are not going to throw their names up for this in my opinion.
About 12 years ago I saw my brother-in-law (brother-in-law) go out every day to spray pesticides in the vast rice fields…I started buying masks because he didn't care at all.
The following year, the villagers found a “rich harvest”, but….(in Isaan) in the fields that were flooded, a lot less fish and crabs were found. The poison destroys everything. The following year nature took its revenge and the weeds came back twice as fast. Despite my comments, this was laughed off and the poison was flushed with the necessary Lao Kao. In the following years I saw more and more cancers coming up…The old “pater familias”, who had worked with buffalo and hoe, long ago was the only one who believed me…Now it's gone…Enjoy!
This is nothing new. It has been denounced many times. The question is, what are we doing about it?
Thailand is indeed a major consumer of chemical pesticides.
In the land of smiles, cultivated products must yield their market value in money.
A country in development, see the traffic with its victims, agriculture with pesticides, etc.
Now I am not so young anymore, but in the fifties in the Netherlands, DDT, now banned worldwide, was the remedy for all ailments. Pests, agriculture, mosquitoes you name it.
In many ways, Thailand cannot be compared to the progress in thinking that we have made since the XNUMXs. They still have to go through many of those processes.
Thailand's advantage is the mirror we can now hold up to them, but will human desire lose out to common sense or ethics?
This week I was a guest at 2 Dutch people in Chang Mai. They had the guts to start growing tomatoes 10 years ago. Under the name Take me Home, they supply all BigC supermarkets with fresh and healthy products.
In a country like Thailand, this is slightly different than in countries with a cooler climate.
Tomatoes thrive best with a 20-hour temperature of about XNUMX degrees.
In North West Europe, for example, you also have less trouble with vermin and if that is the case, we fortunately have the knowledge to combat this with natural fighters and we continue to eat healthy.
The fact that this knowledge is available does not mean that this method may be used in Thailand.
I understood that they would like to work with this knowledge, but it is made impossible to import it here.
How sad when you know what is for sale in the world not to contract these diseases.
I hope that Menno and Thomas are a good example for Thai growers of healthy vegetables.
As a private large user of tomatoes, I also drive to hot and here to get beautiful tomatoes and indeed I also discovered "take me Home" and have been buying these for quite some time now, always good taste.
But did not know that these were from the Dutch, It does say "Dutch" quality, but yes that is also stated on Dutch Milk and it has (in my opinion) nothing to do with the Netherlands. Formast is from Friesland-Campina.
greetings Nico
A Belgian from Isaan who was on the same eva air flight with me put it this way: 1 family sells poison to the farmers at high prices. The same family buys the poisonous vegetables and animals at too low prices from farmers, and after processing they sell them at a high price in the 7/11 and the supermarket. The whole Thai system revolves around 3-4 families.
Yes Brabantman,
I have such a pangasius fish hanging on the wall as a barometer, hahaaa. It's true because this fish is, not only in Thailand but almost half the world, full of mercury, growth hormones and waste water from croplands. And the Thai: “they plow on”!!
I avoided all crops from the USA & China for quite some time.
Since I read a few months ago about the huge amounts of imports of pesticides in Thailand, I also stick to frozen imports from Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
Too bad for pharma mafia but better for all of us.
We try to eat vegetables from our own garden as much as possible. With organic fertilizer.
Vegetables that we cannot get here, we bring seed from Europe. Goes well.
How about washing powders in bags, which you use for small washes in a bucket. People just throw that water away between the coconut trees. Many trees already have no leaves. Soil seriously polluted. I experienced it myself 15 years ago. Whether that has changed now, I doubt. Don't think so. Unfortunately, this is the case everywhere in third world countries.