The presence of carbendazim, a fungicide prohibited by American health regulations, has prompted the United States Food and Drug Administration to prevent just three additional shipments of imported orange juice within the past month.
In total the FDA has prevented 30 orange juice shipments from being imported into the United States since the government health regulator began its testing program at the beginning of this year, according to a recent FDA press release. That number includes two shipments from Costa Rica; 14 shipments from Brazil; 12 shipments from Canada, which utilizes Brazilian juice in its orange juice products; and one shipment apiece from Poland and the Dominican Republic.
The recent reduction in product banning would suggest that foreign exporters have begun testing orange juice product shipments for traces of carbendazim and sending these shiments to locations that allow the fungicide if they test positive for residues greater than the ten parts per billion ratio allowed by the FDA standard. The FDA began testing for the presence of carbendazim when Minute Maid and Tropicana, the two highest selling orange juice brand names in the United States, informed the agency they had detected small quantities of carbendazim in their products.
As a Fresno personal injury attorney, I am hopeful that the FDA’s new stricter testing policy will help to prevent any consumer illness that might result from the presence of an illegal fungicide in American food products. If you or someone you care about has been made ill by improperly manufactured food products, please consider contacting a Bakersfield personal injury attorney.