If you’re wondering where the Woolies organic baby spinach has disappeared to, you’re not alone.

Don’t waste your time rummaging around the shelves, or asking to speak to the manager (don’t give in to the urge), because it’s been removed from the store.

Back in 2015, consumers started requesting that Woolies’ claims of organic veggies were put under the microscope. In order to test that, “Cape Town-based organisation TOPIC – The Testing of Products Initiated by Consumers – had the retailer’s organic sweet potatoes and baby spinach products tested for pesticide residues”.

Woolies’ organic veggies are labelled with the BCS Öko-Garantie logo‚ who are a global organic certifier.

The results of a “long‚ stop-start investigation spanning six months” were released yesterday, and here’s Times LIVE with the details:

While no pesticide residues were found on the organic sweet potatoes‚ very low levels of four pesticides were found on the organic spinach samples.

Of those‚ three are allowed for use in organic farming but one‚ fluopyram‚ is a highly persistent fungicide which is not allowed in organic agriculture.

It’s usually used for grapes‚ berries‚ fruit and tomatoes but not for spinach‚ the TOPIC report says.

Woolworths questioned the result‚ TOPIC said‚ as their supplier does not use the fungicide on its spinach.

Naughty.

Woolies are contesting the findings, saying it may have been due to “possibly contamination drift from a nearby field or during harvesting and processing”, and conducted their own tests.

Not sure that went to plan, though:

Curiously‚ Woolworths‚ having co-operated fully with TOPIC‚ conducted its own tests on the organic spinach and then withdrew the organic spinach from sale “without disclosing the results of the tests or the reason for taking the product out of stores”‚ TOPIC said.

Responding‚ Woolworths told Times LIVE that it was “not satisfied” with the results of the independent pesticide residue testing of its organic baby spinach‚ which it commissioned.

“We have consequently stopped production of our organic baby spinach.”

In summary – a study finds a pesticide that shouldn’t be on your spinach, so you commission your own study. You then say you’re not satisfied with those results, and yank the spinach from the shelves anyway.

All the more reason to buy your veggie goodies from somebody you can trust.

I would say this hasn’t gone to plan. The last word goes to TOPIC:

South Africa does not have any official regulations for organic farming; BCS [Öko-Garantie logo‚ a global organic certifier] follows the EU organic regulations.

TOPIC concluded its report by saying that the government departments responsible for setting maximum residue levels appropriate to South Africa had yet to draft an updated list of registered actives‚ “let alone safety data”.

Consider this something for you to moan about at your next leisurely lunch.

“Darling, the baby spinach – what a bloody outrage.”

[source:timeslive]