Peppers, grapes and olive oil: Pesticide breaches are growing, EU food watchdog finds

Pesticide residues are exceeding legal limits more often on several widely eaten crops, and imported food is failing border checks at three times the rate of food grown in the EU, according to the EU's food safety agency.

Most European food is still well within legal limits — overall, around 99 percent of samples passed the European Food Safety Authority’s annual check on pesticide residues, published Tuesday and covering 2024 data. Imported food fared even less well, and the gap is set to fuel an ongoing Brussels debate over how strictly imports are policed.

And while EFSA has stressed that overall risk to consumers is low, it found that sweet peppers failing EU pesticide limits have nearly doubled since 2018. Table grapes and virgin olive oil are heading the same way. Chicken eggs, clean three years ago, are now showing breaches, too.

Imported produce flagged as high-risk at the EU's border is being rejected at notably higher rates than food grown in Europe, though both shares remain small. Of 39,433 such samples in 2024, the most recent year for which data is available, 3.6 percent were rejected outright and never reached shops. Cumin from India; pomegranates and tomatoes from Turkey; and green tea from China and Vietnam led the failures.

The numbers come after years of farmer protests over what EU producers see as unfair competition from imports held to looser standards. The Commission pledged last year to tighten border checks as part of its new agriculture and food strategy, and a dedicated task force on import controls launched in January.

Much of the trouble in European-grown food traces back to ethephon, a ripening agent that kept turning up in sweet peppers and bananas despite not being approved for either. Two other substances, insecticide flonicamid and herbicide glufosinate, accounted for most other breaches. Both are approved in the EU but turned up above legal limits.

EFSA stressed health risks remain low, noting legal limits are set well below levels considered harmful, and breaches do not automatically mean food is unsafe to eat.

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to correct when the data was collected.