Tainted imported orange juice banned in U.S.
Fungicides are used on other countries to protect their oranges from fungus damage. However in the U.S., fungicides are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), thus any trace amount of fungicides is considered illegal.
According to the FDA, this month alone 14 percent of the orange juice imported into the U.S. has been detained for having trace amounts of fungicides, more specifically carbendazim. On Friday, the FDA stopped 11 shipments of orange juice from entering the U.S. because the shipments tested positive for carbendazim.
A positive test result means the product contains 10 parts per billion (ppb) or more of carbendazim. For the 11 shipments, the range was between 52 and 108 ppb. Six of the 11 seized shipments came from Canada and five came from Brazil. Brazil’s shipments were found to have the highest levels of carbendazim.
Negative carbendazim orange juice shipments came from Mexico (14 shipments), Canada (7 shipments), Costa Rica (2 shipments), Brazil (two shipments), Belize (1 shipment), Honduras (1 shipment), Lebanon (1 shipment), and Turkey (1 shipment).
The orange juice that is detained is considered safe to drink, but since carbendazim is not allowed in the U.S., the tainted orange juice cannot reach the market shelves. This problem with importing orange juice is not a safety issue, but instead a regulatory issue.