Strawberries are a popular snack, especially in summer: Whether in cake, as jam, in ice cream, with a little powdered sugar, in a fruit salad or just like that – without anything. But the supposedly healthy snack also has its downsides. As the results of the ÖKO-TEST test (issue 5/2023) show, many of the packs that we can buy in supermarkets and discounters are contaminated with pesticides.
The sad peak value is seven pesticides in Norma’s strawberries, including sprays, which ÖKO-TEST classifies as particularly questionable. As well as Ethirimol, a fungicide that kills bees and is banned in the EU. It is not clear whether the toxin was used illegally or whether it degraded from the pesticide bupirimate that was also contained. Both options are bad, because bupirimate, like cyflumetofen, is classified as carcinogenic according to the CLP regulation.
In total, only four tested strawberry packs are free of pesticides:
Edeka organic strawberries, Spain, class 2 – ECO-TEST rating: “good” Rewe organic strawberries, class 2, Spain – ECO-TEST rating: “good” Lidl strawberries, Spain, class 1 – ECO-TEST rating: “satisfactory” Aldi Nord Frutania strawberries, Spain, class 1 – ÖKO-TEST rating: “sufficient”
Although these products are free of pesticides, some of them don’t perform “well”. Reasons for the devaluation are, for example, a lack of transparency towards ÖKO-TEST, only partially documented supply chains or only average standards in pesticide management.
