Supermarkets ranked on their pesticide policies
Dec
15
Written by:
15/12/2011 14:49
A report released by the Pesticides Action Network (PAN) in November 2011 compared the top nine supermarkets' policies on pesticides.
The report ranked supermarkets based on pesticide policies which included supermarkets' engagement with customers over the use of pesticides within its supply chain and supermarkets' policies with regards to phasing out certain pesticides.
The assessment showed that there were three companies who were doing the most to address different issues of concern on pesticide use and contamination of food. These were the Co-operative, Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury's.
The decision by the Co-operative and Marks and Spencer to remove the use of endosulfan from their supply chains will give them a massive advantage over other competitors because endosulfan will be limited in 2012 due to its inclusion on Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
At the other end of the spectrum are Aldi and Lidl who failed to make any progress despite being the lowest performers in 2009. In the middle class was Tesco, Morrisons, Asda and Waitrose. Each have made some progress towards eliminating pesticides within their supply chain, although a major failing was the lack of transparency on the use of pesticides for customers.
The PAN assessment concluded that there was more to be done by the retailers however PAN also stated that consumers could help by accepting food with blemishes or spotting.
Stephanie Williamson of PAN UK said 'if retailers and customers were willing to accept minor blemishes or spotting, for example on apples and citrus fruit it would be possible to significantly reduce the amount of pesticides being used'.
PAN UK is calling on supermarkets to take a number of actions that would help both inform the public and reduce pesticides. These measures include;
- publishing the results of in-house pesticides residue testing
- phasing out the use of the most hazardous pesticides from their global supply chains
- developing effective Integrated Pest Management strategies amongst their growers
- reduce the amount of pesticides used for cosmetic reasons.
Further information and individual score cards for each of the supermarkets.
PAN are asking consumers to contact your supermarkets individually to ask them for more action.
This story has been added to our corporate database. The database powers all our live buyers' guides, giving the score for each company on our rankings tables.