We have looked at all the governments published residue results between Jan 2000 and June 2005, and summarised what they tell us about the pesticide residues in tomatoes.

Tomatoes have been tested on four occasions since the beginning of 2000. No further tests are scheduled for 2006.

The total number of samples that have been tested is 456, which includes 11 organic samples (Each sample is at least 10 tomatoes weighing at least 1 kg).

 

Which pesticides turn up on tomatoes?
The five most commonly reported pesticides (with approximate percentages* of non-organic survey samples reported to contain them):

1. Procymidone (11%)
2. Iprodione (7%)
3. Triadimenol (3%)
4. Chlorothalonil (3%)
5. Cyprodinil (3%)

*Not all the individual pesticides were tested for in all the samples, and so the percentages may underestimate their occurrence.

Find out more about the health and environmental effects of these pesticides

There were 31 different pesticides found at least once over the four surveys

How frequently do residues occur on tomatoes?
30% (136) of all samples contained measurable residues, none of which were organic.

12% (54) of samples had more than one pesticide residue. The highest number of pesticides found in one sample was six.  The average number of pesticides found in non-organic samples was 0.52.  Taking into account only those samples that do contain residues, the average number of pesticides found was 1.7