A few months ago the FDA opened a keg of regulatory whoop-ass on the orange juice industry when it announced that it would halt imports of foreign OJ. This was due to possible contamination by carbendazim, a fungicide that’s been banned for use on oranges in the U.S. since 2009 which is still in widespread use in the rest of the world. After the initial uproar the FDA clarified it’s stance and the conditions of the testing – not considering the fungicide levels an imminent threat, rather more of a regulatory issue. Juice from Canada was approved for entry almost immediately which begged the question who was growing oranges in Canada in winter months. Turns out that orange juice is from oranges imported from Brazil first. The FDA continued to test batches of juice.
A big batch of fungicide test results came in at the end of last week. Of the 40 samples that have been tested so far, 29 came back negative for carbendazim, leaving 11 samples testing positive.
Six out of the 11 were sourced from Canada, and the rest were from Brazil, though Food Safety News noted as we did shortly ago, most of the OJ imported from Canada is actually originally from Brazil. As the FDA stated before, despite the positive test results it seems the levels are nowhere near high enough to cause harm to human health. Thanks for that.
In an excerpt from the Huffington Post – FDA spokesperson Siobhan Delancey explained the fate of the positive samples in an email:
We tested 11 samples (one sample per shipment) but two of those (Citri Agroindustrial and Sucocitro Cutrale) withdrew their shipments and took them back. The other nine shipments are in detention, and the companies have 90 days to either arrange for shipping back or for destruction. If they choose to make arrangements for destruction, FDA witnesses it to ensure it was done.
Now that those companies are on import alert, any shipments will be “detained without physical examination,” meaning that they go into detention automatically, until they can demonstrate that they are in compliance with our regulations (i.e, no carbendazim).
The FDA seized any shipment it tested that had clicked in at 10 parts per billion of carbendazim or more. The agency said the highest level of carbendazim discovered was in a shipment that came from Brazil, registering in at 52 parts per billion.
DeLancey said the federal Environmental Protection Agency has determined that carbendazim poses no health risks at up to 80 parts per billion.
The Juice Products Association, for their part, said the standard the FDA is following is too strict for concentrated products.
“The juice industry endorses and applauds FDA’s oversight of imported orange juice concentrate,” the trade group said in a statement. “However, juice processors maintain that evaluating orange juice on an ‘as consumed’ basis rather than as concentrate, which no one drinks as is, is the logical and practical way to assure safety for the consumer.”
The next major round of test results will be released on this Friday, February 3rd.
While we’re waiting for that to filter in, below is the list of all companies whose orange juice has tested positive. Several of these companies had more than one sample test positive. While that may be true, none of the orange juice that tested positive poses any threat for human consumption, according to the FDA, bolstering the assertion that this is a regulatory rather than health based action:
- Citri Agroindustrial S/A (Brazil)
- Sucocitrico Cutrale LTDA (Brazil)
- A. Lassonde Inc. (Canada)
- Nestle Professional Vitality (Canada)
- Sun Pac Foods Ltd (Canada)
- Super Pufft (Canada)