Brazil Juice Exporters Seek to Raise U.S. Fungicide Limit

[IDemo]

January 27, 2012, 3:08 PM EST

By Lucia Kassai

(Updates with comment from exporters group in third paragraph.)

Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Orange juice producers from Brazil, the world’s largest exporter, are in talks with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to raise accepted levels of a banned fungicide after shipments from the country were detained.

The exporters are asking the FDA to raise the limit for the carbendazim fungicide in juice concentrate to 60 parts per billion, Christian Lohbauer, head of Brazil’s orange juice exporter association CitrusBr, said on a conference call with reporters today. The current limit for any form of orange juice shipment is 10 parts per billion.

“The process to make orange juice concentrate indirectly ends up concentrating carbendazim too,” Lohbauer said. “It makes more sense to establish different levels of the fungicide for concentrate and non-concentrate.”

The FDA found higher-than-permitted traits of carbendazim, which has been linked to liver tumors in animals, in five shipments from Brazil. Most orange juice from the South American country, which produces almost one in every six glasses drank in the U.S., is shipped in the form of concentrate, Lohbauer said.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-27/brazil-juice-exporters-seek-to-raise-u-s-fungicide-limit.html

[snagglepuss]

1. I used to be addicted to orange juice but gave it up 3 years ago as it was

really putting on the pounds. Wouldn't go near the stuff knowing they might upped the fungicide.