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U.S. won't allow more fungicide in orange juice: FDA

Posted by Flora Sawita Labels: Brazil, Contamination, FDA and USDA, Fungicide, Juice, Oranges and Mandarin

(Reuters) - The U.S. health regulator on Thursday declined a request by orange juice producers to allow a higher tolerance of a banned fungicide in juice imports, a decision that will force Brazil to stop exporting concentrated orange juice to the United States.

Brazil, the world's top orange juice producer, will still be able to ship its U.S. customers orange juice that is not from concentrate, since that variety contains much smaller levels of carbendazim.

Brazil asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to give it until June 2013 to eradicate carbendazim from its juice after the regulator began checking all imports in January for the chemical which it banned in 2009.

Carbendazim is illegal on citrus in the United States, but commonly used in Brazil, the world's top orange juice exporter, to combat mold on orange trees. It is permitted up to a limit in imports to the European Union, the main buyer of Brazil's juice.

The checks began after Coca Cola alerted the FDA when it discovered the chemical in laboratory tests.

Orange juice futures have been on a rollercoaster ride since the FDA began testing orange juice imports amid uncertainty over whether the United States would cut off supplies from Brazil, which provides about a tenth of U.S. orange juice.

The futures, traded at New York's ICE exchange, hit an all-time high on January 23 of $2.244 a lb but the benchmark March contract had retreated to $1.8505 per lb by Thursday.

Brazil's juice industry has continued exports to the United States since, but only in diluted not-from-concentrate form which meets FDA requirements for carbendazim content below 10 parts per billion (ppb), a virtually undetectable quantity.

"By the end of the year it is probable that things will be back to normal and we will be shipping concentrated juice to (the U.S.) again," an orange juice industry source told Reuters, declining to be named as he was not authorized to speak on the industry's behalf.

Brazil had requested the FDA distinguish between frozen concentrate and not-from-concentrate, meaning a 60 ppb carbendazim tolerance for the former since not-from-concentrate is diluted to about six times the volume of concentrate.

The FDA refused, saying its policy is to apply the 10 ppb limit on juice regardless of its concentration.

U.S. JUICE INDUSTRY TO BUY ELSEWHERE

The Juice Products Association of U.S.-based juice producers said in a statement it was "disappointed" by the FDA decision, since the Environmental Protection Agency declared carbendazim levels of up to 80 ppb posed no threat to human health.

It said it would have to seek supplies of juice from other producing countries.

"The United States cannot grow enough oranges to satisfy American consumer demand for orange juice and therefore juice processors must rely on orange juice concentrate from other countries to assure adequate supplies," it said.

The association had backed Brazil's call for imports of concentrate to be tested in the diluted form in which it is consumed.

In a 1,600 word statement, the FDA said it could not accept the requests Brazil's juice industry presented to it in writing on January 19, citing laws that it said prohibited it from making exceptions that would accommodate it.

"We recognize that the use in Brazil of a pesticide not authorized in the U.S. and FDA's detention of shipments bearing illegal residues has affected the orange juice market and has economic impacts," the response read.

"However these impacts do not warrant a change in FDA's enforcement ...," it concluded, adding that making an exception would create an unfair advantage over other food producers who have incurred costs to ensure their products meet FDA standards.

The FDA statement can be viewed at: here

About two-thirds of Brazil's juice shipments to the United States are already in not-from-concentrate, ready-to-drink form.

The Brazilian industry source said exporters would have to review supply contracts for concentrated juice with U.S.-based importers to switch to a not-from-concentrate product which is more expensive and bulkier to ship.

The European Union, where more than two thirds of Brazil's orange juice is shipped, applies a carbendazim tolerance of 200 ppb.

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Canadian orange juice banned from U.S. amid fungicide fears

Posted by Flora Sawita Labels: Canada, Fungicide, Juice, Oranges and Mandarin, USA

The Food and Drug Administration has detained several shipments of imported orange juice to the United States after finding traces of an illegal fungicide.

The FDA said Friday it had detained about 11 percent of orange juice and orange juice concentrate imports from either Brazil or Canada since it started testing for the fungicide earlier this month.

The government says the juice is safe to drink but the fungicide, carbendazim, is not approved for use in the U.S., so any juice that contains small amounts of it must be detained.

It is used in other countries like Brazil - the top grower of orange juice which exports 10 per cent of the U.S.' supply - to combat mold on orange trees.

The FDA said Friday it had detained about 11 percent of orange juice and orange juice concentrate imports since it started testing for the fungicide earlier this month.

The agency detained nine of 80 total shipments at the border, while importers withdrew two additional shipments from import after learning of the FDA testing.

Importers have 90 days to export or destroy the product once it is detained.

The government started testing for the chemical at the border after Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, which owns juice brands Minute Maid and Simply Orange, reported finding the chemical in its own juice and in competing juices.

Most orange juice products made by Coke and other companies contain a blend of juice from different sources, including Brazil, where the fungicide is approved for use.

A spokesman for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Canada purchases orange juice products from other countries, including Brazil, and then exports it to the United States.

No oranges are grown in Canada.

'Canadian exporters do purchase product from other countries where the carbendazim can be a factor,' said Rod Lister, a spokesman for the Canadian agency. 'One of the main suppliers of orange juice for export is Brazil.'

Test results released by the FDA showed the highest levels found were in a Jan. 4 shipment from Brazil.

That shipment contained up to 52 parts per billion of the fungicide, still far below the European Union's maximum residue level of 200 parts per billion. Most of the shipments detained had much lower amounts.

The U.S. government has not established an official maximum residue level for carbendazim in orange juice, but the Environmental Protection Agency has said a detailed risk assessment of carbendazim showed no risks at up to 80 parts per billion.

EPA officials have said they believe the real levels of concern are probably thousands of times higher.

Still, the FDA has said it will detain any orange juice imports that contain more than 10 parts per billion of the chemical.

Amounts below that aren't detectable, agency officials said.

The agency is also testing samples from domestic manufacturers, but those results have not been released.

In a letter to the Juice Products Association this month, FDA official Nega Beru asked the industry to ensure that suppliers in Brazil, the world's largest orange producer, and other countries stop using the fungicide.

'If the agency identifies orange juice with carbendazim at levels that present a public health risk, it will alert the public and take the necessary action to ensure that the product is removed from the market,' he said.

The FDA's testing has created some volatility on the stock market in the past month.

The price of orange juice has risen 9 percent since the FDA first announced the discovery of the fungicide Jan. 9 and went as high as $2.1995 per pound before falling back.

Orange juice futures rose 4.3 cents, or 2.1 percent, on the news of the positive tests Friday and ended at $2.109 per pound on the New York commodities market.