The national farm chemical regulator has suspended the use of a popular insecticide on a range of berries over concerns that surging consumption has eroded acceptable safety margins.<\/p>\n
The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) has banned the use of dimethoate, which is used to control fruit fly, on blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.<\/p>\n
APVMA chief executive Scott Hansen said berries remain safe to eat, but the volume Australians consume has “significantly eaten into the safety buffer” between exposure and risk.<\/p>\n
“We therefore had to take actions to adjust the way in which the product (dimethoate) was being used to reinsert a safety margin,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
APVMA CEO Scott Hansen says berries remain safe to eat. (Supplied: APVMA)<\/p>\n
Excluding strawberries, consumption has risen to 1.3 kilograms per person a year, up from 611 grams when the limits were last considered in 2017.<\/p>\n
Mr Hansen said the regulator had received 22 public submissions as part of its public consultation period, announced in August, but ultimately the data supported restricting the use.<\/p>\n
“Every one of those submissions was considered,” he said.<\/p>\n
It is now illegal for growers to use dimethoate on the listed berries, which could be harvested as soon as one day after spraying.<\/p>\n
Manufacturers can apply to the APVMA to vary their registration to include a two-week harvest withholding period, meaning growers would be able to use the chemical, but only if they waited 14 days after spraying to harvest.<\/p>\n
In its decision, the APVMA said residue levels were “unlikely to pose a serious risk to human health,” but it suspended use “as a precautionary measure”.<\/p>\n
Mr Hansen said it meant consumers were protected.<\/p>\n
“What we’ve done by changing the withholding period from one day to 14 days is rebuild that safety buffer,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Which means that berries continue to be safe to eat.”<\/p>\n
Dimethoate has been used in Australia since the 1950s to control more than 80 pest insects in fruit, vegetables and grains.<\/p>\n
It was banned by the European Union in 2019 and is classified by the US Environmental Protection Agency as a “possible human carcinogen”.<\/p>\n
Industry representative body Berries Australia had opposed the restriction, but chair Anthony Poiner said it accepted the regulator’s decision.<\/p>\n
“I accept it completely,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I’m very supportive of their focus on ensuring that as our industries evolve, they make sure that they are custodians of keeping consumers safe.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Anthony Poiner says dimethoate is the most effective chemical to combat Queensland fruit fly in berries.\u00a0 (Supplied: Fresh Produce Group)<\/p>\n
Mr Poiner said dimethoate was the most effective chemical against Queensland fruit fly, a native pest that costs growers an estimated $300 million each year.<\/p>\n
Because berries have a short shelf-life once picked, he said the 14-day withholding period would effectively prevent the use of dimethoate during harvest.<\/p>\n
He said the new measure will ultimately add to the cost of production.<\/p>\n
“It’s the most effective tool, but we use integrated management to control fruit fly, so we will have one less tool in the armoury,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We’ll now apply our minds to adjust our integrated strategies and try and mitigate that (increased cost).”<\/p>\n
The APVMA’s permit is in place until November 2026, while chemical companies decide whether to amend their product labels to reflect the longer withholding period or remove berries from their labels entirely.<\/p>\n
At the end of that period, products that have not been updated will be cancelled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The national farm chemical regulator has suspended the use of a popular insecticide on a range of berries…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[29153,64,63,79746,112431,99,79747,79745,161815],"class_list":{"0":"post-279259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-apvma","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-berry","12":"tag-blueberry","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-chemical","15":"tag-dimethoate","16":"tag-fruit-fly"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}