Frozen farce

VegetalesWA executive ossicer Jim Turley.

WA vegetable growers are alarmed after discovering that Australian quarantine authorities only test for the minimum when it comes to agricultural chemicals in imported frozen vegetables.

VetetablesWA has revealed that the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) only tests for 49 different agricultural chemicals on imported frozen and processed vegetables from countries such as China, and then only randomly.

Chemical testing reports given to Countryman reveal that vegetables exported from WA to Japan are required to undergo testing for 291 different agricultural chemicals. In Europe, 315 maximum residue limits are tested for, while the United States tests for 326.

The revelation came about when a Perth processor received a false positive result for the chemical isoprocarb from a Japanese importer. According to a pesticide information website, isoprocarb is a moderate toxicity Carbamate compound that can cause headaches, vomiting, diarrhoea and central nervous system depression.

But when the processor tried to have the chemical tested in a lab in WA, he was told a specific test needed to be created because it was not standard practice to test for all chemicals used by overseas growers.

In a statement, AQIS said it was responsible for undertaking all testing on imported frozen vegetables, reliant on advice from Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ).

AQIS said the Imported Food Inspection Scheme (IFIS) identified food that FSANZ deemed as medium-to-high risk to public health and initially tested at a rate of 100 per cent.

This rate will reduce over time as a history of compliance for a particular food and its producer develops. The food will then be treated as ‘low risk' and will be subject to random surveillance under the IFIS at a rate of 5 per cent of consignments.

FSANZ spokeswoman Lydia Buchtmann said tests were only performed on specific chemicals, however, general testing would still identify high levels of chemicals not on the list. "But it would be unlikely there would be anything that was unsafe in recent years that we haven't noticed," she said.

Ms Buchtmann said the Australian Total Diet Study, undertaken every two years, had not detected contaminants in food for the past 15 years.

She added that random testing would identify new chemicals used by overseas growers and the Australian system was one of the best in the world.

"It would be silly to keep testing things that have a good record, hence a reduction down to the lowest level. But even that is high compared to other countries," she said. "Fruit and vegetables aren't a risk and there doesn't seem to be a problem."

But Dr Peter Taylor, head of residues chemistry at ChemCentre, said the recent melamine incident on imported milk powder products occurred because there was no testing for melamine in milk, allowing it to escape detection for a long time.

"The main problem is that we don't know which chemicals are being used overseas," he said. "Once we do know, we can develop tests. However, developing these tests requires substantial time and resources, therefore, there is no point investing resources in tests that may not be needed."

Dr Taylor said not all countries had such quality systems in place, leaving uncertainty regarding the use of agricultural chemicals.

VegetablesWA executive officer Jim Turley said the public's health was at risk: "This is like a time bomb waiting to go off. We are not testing for even half of the chemicals used by overseas growers."

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