FDA inspecting all orange juice facilities after Coca-Cola alerted them to fungicide levels in orange juice

[Emily]

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20120121/ARTICLE/301219997

FDA inspecting all juice facilities
By KEVIN BOUFFARD Lakeland Ledger
Published: Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, January 20, 2012 at 7:35 p.m.

HAINES CITY - The FDA is testing orange juice at all Florida processing plants for unsafe levels of carbendazim, a fungicide banned in the U.S. that has made its way into domestic products through imported Brazilian orange juice....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/12/coca-cola-alerted-fda-fungicide-oranges

Coca-Cola alerted the FDA to fungicide levels in orange juice

Company reveals itself as having alerted federal regulators about low fungicide levels in it and its competitors' products
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 January 2012 15.29 EST

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/fda-orange-juice-recall-isnt-warranted/2012/01/20/gIQAL8DzEQ_story.html

FDA: Orange juice recall isn?t warranted
By Dina ElBoghdady, Published: January 20

 

[Emily]

Re: FDA inspecting all orange juice facilities after Coca-Cola alerted them to fungicide levels in orange juice

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-orange-juice-detained-20120128,0,3282575.story

FDA seizes nearly 14% of imported orange juice over fungicide
[snip]
"We don't feel that this is a safety problem," FDA spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey said. "This is more of a regulatory issue...

The above statement is rather sad. 6 of the seized shipments were from Canada and five from Brazil, according to the article.

Also the article reports that the EPA allows for higher amounts of the fungicide carbendazim than does the FDA. (8x as much.) The industry wants the FDA to raise limits for the fungicide in concentrate, though the article does not make it clear that the levels found were in only concentrates. Both juice and concentrates were being tested.

I think safety levels should protect teens and children who may consume large amounts of orange juice on a daily basis. The convenience of not having to squeeze oranges makes it easy to consume orange juice in large quantities.