Orange Juice Shipments Halted Over Fungicide Worries

A recent decision to halt shipments of imported orange juice arriving at U.S. ports came after an unnamed juice company alerted the FDA of low levels of the fungicide, carbendazim, was found in products imported from Brazil.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration noted it will be examining all container shipments of orange juice arriving at U.S. ports. The testing could take between five and ten business days. While the FDA report mentions that the detected low levels of carbendazim in “currently marketed finished products,” they continue on with a risk assessment note from the Environmental Protection Agency that concludes that consumption of orange juice with carbendazim at the low levels that have been reported “does not raise safety concerns.”

The FDA doesn’t intend to take action to remove orange juice from store shelves that contain the reported low levels of carbendazim. However, the FDA is conducting its own testing of orange juice for carbendazim, and will alert the public if it emerges that these low levels of fungicide could pose a public health risk.

For those unfamiliar (aren’t we all who aren’t PhDs in the matter), carbendazim is a widely used fungicide with a purpose of controlling plant diseases in fruit. The worry about high levels of carbendazim though, is that studies have found that high doses have caused infertility and even destroyed the testicles of laboratory animals. Just so you know.