Lidl Germany lists out table grapes because of too high pesticide residues
09.10.2006 |Margriet Samwel
On Monday this week the food chain Lidl (12% of the German food market) informed us per fax and phone call that they listed out table grapes all
over Germany because the quality of grapes from Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey would not be sufficient. They told us that the pesticide residues
would be too high and therefore they stopped selling table grapes. They would continue to sell organic grapes - but amounts available on the market
were not enough to stock all shops. They did not say when they would start selling conventionally grown grapes again.
This is the latest follow up measure after the big pesticide test of Greenpeace in Nov. last year (Lidl was the worst of all retailers ranked).
Today we checked Lilds announcement in some shops. We did not find table grapes any more. In the shops they placed consumer info's saying that they
stopped selling grapes due to fog and bad weather in the producer countries. Obviously they did not want to name the real problem and issue
of pesticides.
This is the first such case of a food chain to phase out a important fresh product totally because of too high pesticide residues in Germany. As you
know Aldi in the NL did similar steps before after the campaign of Hans Muilerman. I hope we will be able to change the food market this way towards low residue and organic produce!
