§ Dr. David ClarkTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in view of the new evidence of levels of Alar in apples, whether he will now ban its use in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Ryder[holding answer 18 July 1989]: I assume that the hon. Gentleman is referring to information about residue levels of daminozide which was publicised recently by "Parents for Safe Food". These levels result from a method of analysis which is known to be non-specific and, therefore, liable to give false positives. Even if they were found by confirmatory analysis to be correct, they are still within the range considered to be safe by the independent advisory committee on pesticides.