The presence of residues of substances not permitted in organic farming in Italy is rarely attributable to the fraudulent intentions of operators. As a rule, the circumstance is linked to false positives, unavoidable contaminations, input irregulars authorized by the ministry and by recent normative perversions. An excursus.
1) False positives
Let’s start with false positives, that is, with the results of an analysis that erroneously indicate the presence of a substance that, in fact, is not present.
It is established that, both with gas chromatography and spectrophotometry, some matrices give false positive results in the determination of specific analytes.
Just to name a few cases: the analyses of rocket and capers indicate the presence of dithiocarbamates (a family of fungicides not permitted in organic farming) due to the natural composition of the product. The same phenomenon is recorded with cruciferous vegetables (cabbages, broccoli, Savoy cabbage etc.), with allioideae (garlic, onion), with some aromatic herbs (basil, parsley).
1.1) The case of legumes, rice and other cereals
The CREA (Council for Agricultural Research and Analysis of Agricultural Economics, supervised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry) in September 2023 presented the first results of a specific research project from which emerges in some legumes the endogenous production of phosphonic acid (which is also the main metabolite of the fungicide Fosetil Aluminium, not permitted in organic farming) which, previously, was thought to derive exclusively from the use of input external.
It is known that rice and other cereals (wheat, corn, barley) naturally contain gibberellic acid (a plant growth regulator not permitted in organic farming and, as far as cereals are concerned, not even in conventional farming), but the same substance is naturally present in spinach and onion.
1.2) Water is also at risk of residues
Despite the authorization of all pesticide substances containing chlorates has been revoked by Commission Decision 2008/865/EC, chlorates are inserted in Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 396/2005, thereby being equated to antiparasitic substances.
But in civilized countries, water treatment for the purpose of controlling pathogenic germs is carried out by water service managers with chlorinated substances (sodium hypochlorite or chlorine dioxide, active against bacteria, spores and certain viruses). The practices of ozonation of water or its treatment with UV rays are far less widespread (and, in any case, outside the control of food sector operators).
1.3) The purification process gives rise to inevitable chlorate residues in the water
The use of clean, drinkable water is intuitively considered necessary and is explicitly required by food safety regulations in order to minimize possible hygiene risks.
But EFSA itself confirms that such residues may give rise to the presence of chlorate in foods for which the water has been used for processing, for the disinfection of processing equipment or as an ingredient. (1)
The MRL(Maximum residue limit) for chlorine in drinking water is 0,7 mg/l (a good 70 times 0,01 mg/kg, the maximum value tolerated by Italian legislation in organic products), from which it follows that the use of drinking water supplied by the public service as an ingredient can easily lead to exceeding the threshold(but the risk also exists with the simple washing of the raw material carried out with water declared safe and drinkable by the water service manager).
Not enough, therefore, that an analysis shows the presence of a certain active ingredient. The analytical data must be correctly evaluated and interpreted from a technical point of view.
2) Inevitable contamination
A “drift effect” is established in pesticides. Only a small part of the substances used in agriculture reaches the target (be it a crop or a weed), the rest spreads into the surrounding environment with the airborne dispersion of particles, runoff and percolation, with an effect that varies based on the equipment used, ambient temperatures, relative humidity, wind speed, atmospheric conditions and other parameters.
The Drift can affect distances from a few meters to several kilometers. So much so that numerous studies have detected widespread contamination by pesticides even in areas that would be considered uncontaminated. It has been confirmed in cores over 100 meters deep on glaciers and in the meltwater of the now exhausted glaciers distributed along the Alpine arc, with obvious risks for the aquatic ecosystems of spring water courses.
A study recently published in Nature – Communications Earth & Environment (2) confirms that pesticides are transferred well outside the treated crops and can affect animals and plants even far away from them.
2.1) Pesticides from ‘conventional’ apple orchards up to the mountain tops
A systematic review sampled soil and vegetation along a dozen altitude zones of the Venosta Valley (the largest apple-growing area in Europe) detecting 27 substances (10 insecticides, 11 fungicides and 6 herbicides) coming from the apple orchards.
The mapping based on the survey indicates that pesticide mixtures are present everywhere, from the valley floor where the apple orchards on which the treatments are carried out stand up to the mountain tops, passing through the conservation areas of the Tessa Group and in the Stelvio National Park, around the Ortles-Cevedale massif.
2.2) Surface and ground waters contaminated
In the periodical ‘Report national pesticides in water’ (3) ISPRA (Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, the public research body of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security), after having clearly indicated that ‘The presence of pesticides in water has potential adverse effects on human health and the environment’, acknowledges that, at national level, in 2021, residues of plant protection products were found in 55,6% of surface water monitoring stations (rivers, lakes and transitional waters), of which 28,3% exceed the limit values established by the regulations.
For groundwater, instead, 23,2% of the monitoring points present residues, with 6,8% exceeding the legal standards.
The intense agricultural use, in short, means that the presence of pesticides is widespread not only in the waters and areas of the Po-Veneto valley, but also in the Centre-South (where it is coming to light thanks to the improved effectiveness of monitoring), and even in the mountains above 2000 metres.
2.3) Responsibilities and damages
If it is not possible to blame the staff of the South Tyrolean Landesforstkorps (which is also required, among many other tasks, to protect and supervise activities that could harm the integrity of the natural environment and its ecological balances and to apply restrictions aimed at protection) because in the high altitude meadows where marmots emerge, analyses find fungicides used in the apple orchards in the valley, it is not clear how it is possible to blame an organic farmer for the presence of the same fungicides on the leaves of his untreated apple trees. Indeed, he should be compensated.
Widespread contamination is such that Commission Directive 2006/125/EC of 5 December 2006 admits that the ban on the use of certain pesticides in agricultural products used for the production of foods intended for infants and young children “It does not necessarily guarantee that the products do not contain pesticides, as some of them contaminate the environment, so their residues can be found in the products” (recital 13) and “Some pesticides degrade slowly and continue to contaminate the environment, so they may be present in cereal-based foods and other foods intended for infants and young children, even if they have not been used” (recital 15).
Admitting the defeat, the directive states that foods intended for infants and young children must not contain residues of individual pesticides in quantities exceeding 0,01 mg/kg, considered as the threshold of technically unavoidable inadvertent contamination.
3) Ministerial Decree 309/2011
On January 13, 2011, the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies (then led by Giancarlo Galan) issued Ministerial Decree 309/2011 which introduced the threshold of 0,01 ppm of residues for organic products.
The product which had pesticide residues above this threshold (which is equivalent to one gram of substance in 100 tonnes) could under no circumstances be marketed with the organic production certification, even if the official investigation by the control body had determined the contamination as involuntary or unavoidable.
If they detected the presence of a substance not permitted in organic farming below the threshold, the laboratories of the public control bodies were required to express an opinion on the regularity of the sample and to involve the control body, which was required to start the official investigation on the operator, to evaluate the source and cause of the unwanted presence.
If the investigations resulted in finding intentional use or inadequacy of precautionary measures (for example, planting of tree hedges that acted as a mechanical barrier, uncultivated buffer strip at the border), the certification was withdrawn even if the presence was below the threshold, with sanctions applied to the operator.
4) What does the European regulation say (instead).
Article 28 of Regulation (EU) 848/2018 addresses precautionary measures aimed at preventing the presence of unauthorized products and substances.
The regulation provides that in order to avoid contamination with unauthorised products or substances, operators must take precautionary measures at all stages of production, preparation and distribution.
They must adopt, maintain and adapt periodically proportionate and appropriate measures to identify contamination risks, with the systematic identification of critical procedural steps, and comply with all relevant requirements of the Regulation aimed at ensuring separation between organic and non-organic products.
Organic operators cannot blame the evil (and polluted) world, but they must take reasonable, proportionate and adequate measures to avoid the risks:
– planting of tree hedges that act as a mechanical barrier,
– buffer zones,
– monitoring of queues closest to the borders,
– making neighbors responsible for using equipment that reduces drift and not treating on windy days.
Then, it goes without saying, if the contamination is not a consequence of the drift, but it depends on the contamination of the water, it’s not like you can take any particular precautionary measures.
4.1) The active role of the operator
The rules establishes that if the operator has reason to suspect the non-compliance of an organic product produced by him or supplied by others, he must identify and separate it, placing it on the market only after having eliminated the suspicion of non-compliance.
If the suspicion remains, the blocking of the product must be confirmed and it is necessary to immediately inform the control body or the competent authority, which will be responsible for determining the validity of the suspicion, verifying the source and cause.
For the European standard, the operator has an active role: if he finds residues within the MRLs on his wheat of a substance that has no technical effect on the wheat, but has one on the vineyards of neighbours, from which his wheat is also separated as a precaution by a tall hedge of plum and cypress trees and a buffer strip, he can well conclude that his product is compliant and that the suspicion was unfounded.
Will keep the documentation of the procedure available to the control body (with which it can also consult in advance) and to the competent authority to demonstrate the conformity of its actions.
5) The case of phosphonic acid and yet another deviation from Italian legislation
Particularly in the last decade operators, control bodies and supervisory bodies have begun to increasingly register positive analytical results for phosphorous acid, the main metabolite of fosetyl aluminium, a systemic fungicide not authorised in organic production.
Analytical positivity above 0,01 mg/kg has gradually led to the decertification of large quantities of product, downgraded to conventional, with obvious economic impact on operators and operational impact on the control system, with the overload of additional inspections, sampling and analytical checks and with the increase in the risk class of operators deemed non-compliant.
In 2016 pressure from operators, understandably concerned about the growing frequency of the phenomenon, induced the ministry (at the time led by Maurizio Martina) to entrust CREA with the Biofosf project – ‘Tools for resolving the “phosphite” emergency in organic fruit and vegetable products’.
5.1) The ‘discovery’ of input indicated by the ministry but contaminated
From the project some important scientific evidence has emerged.
First of all, it was ascertained the undeclared presence of phosphorous acid in some copper-based preparations, microelement-based fertilizers and in organic fertilizers based on algae that the SIAN portal – National Agricultural Information System – classified as permitted in organic farming.
In other words, the ministry indicated that technical means could be safely used, but they were contaminated, and then sanction the farmers who, after having verified the green light from the competent authority, purchased and used them.
Even more important, a phenomenon of has been ascertained bioaccumulation in woody parts of plants with translocation to leaves and fruits prolonged over time (over 5 years): in tree production, analytical positivity was a certain (and absolutely inevitable) consequence of the legitimate use of technical means with phosphorous acid or simply phosphorus before the conversion to the organic method.
From the work of CREA it can be concluded that the operators who, over the years, had tons of fruit and vegetable products downgraded and who had received sanctions were completely innocent.
5.2) The new thresholds of the Patuanelli decree
The ministerial decree of 10 July 2020 was then issued, n. 7264 (minister Stefano Patuanelli), which set the threshold of phosphorous acid at 0,05 mg/kg. The latter, by way of derogation until 31 December 2022, was increased to 0,5 mg/kg for herbaceous crops and 1,0 mg/kg for arboreal crops (the subsequent ministerial decree of 22 December 2022, n. 658304 then extended the thresholds to 31 December 2025).
Meantime, as already mentioned, from the preliminary results of a new CREA research project, evidence is emerging of a self-production of phosphorous acid by numerous legumes, which will probably lead to a new update of the decree.
6) The devil is in the details
The subsequent legislative decree of 6 October 2023, n. 148 (minister Francesco Lollobrigida) establishes in article 8 (conditions of non-compliance) that the biological characteristic is to be considered compromised when the presence of a non-permitted substance is detected and in article 16 (Obligations of operators) that “The operator can eliminate the suspicion of non-compliance due to the presence of a non-permitted substance if he can exclude that such presence exists.”.
The operator on whose grain there is a trace, not even quantifiable (above the LOD, limit of detection, but below the LOQ, limit of quantification) of an active ingredient that has no technical meaning on grain, must consider the product non-compliant, cannot proceed directly to verify sources and causes, but must delegate the operation to the control body.
The contrast with European legislation is clear the LOD is not homogeneous for the different active ingredients, but generally the analysis allows a detectability of up to 0,001 mg/kg, i.e. 10 times less than the threshold that Commission Directive 2006/125/EC qualifies as a technically unavoidable level of environmental contamination.
6.1) The normative perversion of the ministry
In other words, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry authorizes conventional farmers (who cultivate roughly 80% of the national territory) to release into the environment approximately 122.000 tons per year of hundreds of substances, perhaps labeled “Very toxic to aquatic environments with long-lasting effects”, the residues of which we find in over half of surface waters (and in 28,3% of sampling points in quantities exceeding the legal limit values).
Then consider non-compliant organic products that show traces that are not even quantifiable, until the official investigation carried out by the control body is concluded. In the meantime, the product cannot be marketed (not a big deal if it is wheat and chickpeas, but what about strawberries and lettuce?).
6.2) Discouraging effects in the conversion to organic farming
current regulatory perversion discourages the conversion of new companies to organic farming.
Who dares? to switch to organic if the product must be blocked in the presence of technically unavoidable environmental contamination?
The organic farmer is he a Superman capable of avoiding what European legislation defines as inevitable?
6.3) The distance from the European regulation
This perversion also means that, in order to avoid the complications and costs of managing a suspected non-conformity, with the related blocking of the product under investigation, there is a tendency in trade to accept only products free from residues.
More than a simplification it is an arbitrary reduction. Nowhere does EU Regulation 848/2018 and its 124 “whereas” that contain the motivation provide that the organic product must have zero residue: they provide that the operator implements proportionate and reasonable measures (and avoiding the inevitable is not reasonable) to keep residues out of his production.
The absence of detectable residues does not in itself demonstrate compliance with the organic method, the central element of which is the process-oriented approach to quality.
7) Damage to Italian companies
Another aspect of interest is that, as obvious, but also reiterated by EU regulation 848/2018, Italy can apply detailed national production rules, but only if they comply with European legislation (and this does not seem to be the case) and without prohibiting, limiting or preventing the placing on the market of products obtained outside its territory that comply with the regulation.
The “zero residue” constraint, therefore, would fall only on national operators, an eventuality on which the Constitutional Court (4) has objected:
“The unequal treatment between national and Community companies, even if it is irrelevant for Community law, it is therefore not so for Italian constitutional law. Since it cannot be resolved by the latter by subjecting the latter to the same constraints that weigh on the former, since the Community principle of free movement of goods prevents it, the only alternative practicable by the legislator in the absence of other constitutionally founded justifying reasons is to equate the production regulations of national companies to the regulations of other Member States in which there are no production and marketing constraints similar to those in force in our country.
Ultimately, in the absence of uniform regulation at Community level, the principle of non-discrimination between companies operating on the same market in a competitive relationship, it operates, in the diversity of national disciplines, as an instance of adaptation of domestic law to the principles established in the treaty in articles 30 and following;
it works, therefore, in the sense of prevent national companies from being burdened with charges, constraints and prohibitions that the legislator could not impose on Community production: which is equivalent to saying that in the judgment of equality entrusted to this Court, the discriminatory effects that the application of Community law is likely to cause cannot be ignored”.
8) The support of the Vade Mecum
It goes without saying that a “free for all” is not being proposed., as a set of reasonable procedures that do not assume that organic entrepreneurs are evildoers.
Control bodies and authorities must verify that there is no mixing of organic and non-organic products or that there are other attempts at fraud, but in the face of the presence of traces likely to derive from contamination that European standards qualify as accidental and involuntary, they should evaluate the reasonableness of the precautionary measures adopted by the operators, their risk class and the “history” of compliance, keeping in mind the tons of product destined for waste perhaps only because the operators had used fertilizers endorsed by the ministry.
Operators, control and supervisory bodies can find a valid support tool in the “Vade Mecum on Official Investigation in Organic Products (Good Implementation Practices for Articles 28 and 29 of Regulation (EU) 2018/848” just released and free to download. (5)
The manual, implemented with the support of the Bundesprogramm Ökologischer Landbau (the German federal government’s scheme for organic farming) with the collaborative approach of 25 of Europe’s leading experts (including representatives of the competent authorities of Denmark and Bavaria, French, German and Swiss technical institutes, companies, consultants) aims to support all stakeholder in the management of Article 28 (Precautionary measures to avoid the presence of unauthorised products and substances) and 29 (Measures to be adopted in the event of the presence of unauthorised products or substances) of EU Regulation 848/2018.
Maybe even the competent Italian authority, which by continuing to keep our country out of line with European legislation causes serious damage to our production system.
Roberto Pinton
Footnotes
(1) (EFSA Journal 2015; 13(6): 4135, Risks for public health related to the presence of chlorate in food, https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2015.4135
(2) Brühl, C.A., Engelhard, N., Bakanov, N. et al. “Widespread Contamination of Soils and Vegetation with Current Use Pesticide Residues along Altitudinal Gradients in a European Alpine Valley”, Commun Earth Environ 5, 72 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01220-1
(3) https://www.snpambiente.it/snpa/rapporto-nazionale-pesticidi-nelle-acque-dati-2021/
(4) Sentence n.443 year 1997
(5) Verlet & Neuendorff et al. (2024). A Vade Mecum on Official Investigation into Organic Products. Good Implementation Practices for Articles 28 and 29 of Regulation (EU) 2018/848. Anti-Fraud Initiative. https://shorturl.at/gCW4r
Secretary of AssoBio, the Italian Association of organic products processing and distribution companies with about 90 associated companies for a turnover of over 2 billion, he is a member of the board of Ifoam-Eu, the European Federation of the organic sector, and coordinator of the group of European interest in the transformation / market sector.
