International environmental organization Greenpeace is taking supermarkets in China to court over excessive use of pesticides.
Greenpeace says a green vegetable tested at Tesco apparently showed use of methamidophos and monocrotophos, which have been prohibited in China since the beginning of 2007. At rival Lianhua, a Chinese leek sample reportedly contained pesticide residue procymidone levels of 1.05 mg/kg, which exceeds the Chinese MRL standard of 0.02 mg/kg.
In a blog post on the organization's official website, Greenpeace campaigner Monica Tan wrote: "We're demanding the major supermarkets completely halt their use of illegal pesticides or at levels exceeding the legal limit, then ban the worst of the worst pesticide use immediately for their fresh and unpacked produce and finally absolutely no selling of GE food. And we're not only walking up to the head offices of these chain supermarkets and demanding it – we're hauling them into court and doing it. And we're not only walking up to the head offices of these chain supermarkets and demanding it – we're hauling them into court and doing it."
As part of that commitment for Chinese consumer protection, the organization claims to be hauling Tesco to the Beijing Secondary People's Court and Shanghai Lianhua to the Shanghai District Court. The organization wants the supermarkets to apologize, stop the use of the pesticides, and establish a better quality control regime.
Neither Greenpeace nor the supermarkets have posted any information on their official media channels about a supermarket response to these alleged legal actions.
Last year, Greenpeace ranked supermarkets' quality in China. While foreign firms Carrefour and Auchan topped the list. Hualian and Tesco were at the bottom, ranked ninth and tenth, respectively.
