§ Mr. Martyn JonesTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he will publish the results of tests which are being carried out on the levels of the fungicide ethylene thiourea in various food products.
§ Mr. MacleanOn 29 March the food safety directorate of the Department published and placed in the Library of the House the full results of tests on samples of produce previously analysed for ethylene thiourea (ETU) by Parents for Safe Food (PFSF) and Friends of the Earth (FOE). The PFSF/FOE issued their findings in a press release dated 14 February 1989 under the heading "Dangerous Agrochemicals in Supermarket Foods." This gave rise to widespread press coverage with headlines such as "Tomato Ketchup in Cancer Scare."
The Department's tests showed that PFSF/FOE main results grossly overstated the residues of ETU in their samples. We found no detectable ETU residues in bread, compared with PFSF/FOE findings of levels more than 300 times our limit of detection. For tomato ketchup, the PFSF/FOE results overstated actual levels by up to 150 times. For the other products for which duplicate samples were provided, residues were generally either absent or within predicted levels. Low levels of residues were found in dried potato products but presented no risk to health and would be greatly reduced after dilution and reconstitution.
132WOne sample of tomato ketchup was found to have an elevated level of ETU. PFSF/FOE subsequently admitted that this was a sample "spiked" with additional ETU to test the validity of the Department's results. All the Department's tests were done using at least three different analytical techniques to confirm their validity, in contrast to the PFSF/FOE results which were not checked to confirm their validity before they were published.