To ensure that orange juice in the United States does not pose a safety concern due to the presence of carbendazim residues, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently testing samples of orange juice shipments from all countries and manufacturers that offer such shipments for import into the U.S., as well as imported and finished product at domestic manufacturers.
January 31, 2012
To ensure that orange juice in the United States does not pose a safety concern due to the presence of carbendazim residues, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently testing samples of orange juice shipments from all countries and manufacturers that offer such shipments for import into the U.S., as well as imported and finished product at domestic manufacturers. The FDA has not allowed entry of any sampled shipment into the U.S. until the testing and analysis has confirmed that the orange juice product complies with U.S. laws. The agency has refused import shipments containing carbendazim at 10 parts per billion (ppb) or greater.
To date, the FDA has collected samples from 80 shipments of orange juice or orange juice concentrate. Of these, 29 shipments tested negative for carbendazim and 15 of them have already been released. Of the 29 samples, 14 were shipments from Mexico, seven from Canada, two from Costa Rica, two from Brazil, and one each from Belize, Honduras, Lebanon, and Turkey.
The FDA found 11 samples that tested positive, meaning that each sample contained 10 ppb or more of carbendazim. Each sample represents one shipment. The agency has detained nine shipments. The two additional shipments had samples that tested positive but the firms decided to not import the product into the United States. Of the 11 samples, six were from shipments from Canada and five were from Brazil. Before being detained, each sample was tested twice, and at least one of those samples tested positive. Two samples had one result below 10 ppb, but a second sample tested at 10 ppb or greater.
Press release