Shenzhen city’s farm produce markets have tightened inspections on legume and gourd vegetables after cowpeas from Hainan were found to contain excessive levels of chemicals Wednesday.
All cowpeas have been ordered to be examined with advanced equipment every morning and the inspections have extended to other legume and gourd vegetables from Hainan.
More than five kilograms of cowpeas from Hainan were found tainted with a highly toxic pesticide called Isocarbophos at the Futian Farm Produce Wholesale Market in a sample test Wednesday.
These cowpeas contained 0.72 milligrams of Isocarbophos per kilogram, five times higher than the levels of toxic pesticides found in cowpeas in Wuhan, Hubei Province, the first place in the country to issue a three-month ban on sales of Hainan-grown cowpeas.
The toxic cowpeas were bought from a wholesaler in Dongguan. All the contaminated stock found so far has been destroyed by authorities, said Lin Shide, who runs the vegetable department at the market.
A citywide inspection of Hainan cowpeas was still under way Thursday.
Isocarbophos is a pesticide that can cause severe health problems, including cancer. Vegetables containing more than 100 milligrams of Isocarbophos per kilogram will cause instant poisoning. The chemical is banned from use in agriculture.
The Futian market suspended sales of cowpeas from Wednesday and all other legume and gourd vegetables will receive strict inspections every day, Lin said.
At the Nanshan Farm Produce Wholesale Market, no toxic cowpeas had been found as of Thursday afternoon, according to Zhuo Liang, vice director of the market.
The Buji Farm Produce Wholesale Market in Longgang District, the city’s biggest, had not banned cowpeas, but tightened daily checks on vegetables, particularly 12 wholesalers selling vegetables from Hainan.
“We handle about six tons of cowpeas every day and no toxic cowpeas have been found. The cowpeas in the Futian market were different from ours, being darker and thinner, and they were from a completely different production base in Hainan,” said Song Bing, a manager in charge of vegetable sales at the market.
