How does Wine Pesticide happen?
What is wine pesticide?
In this blog, we are going to give a good explanation of what a wine pesticide is, how often they are in wine, and what you can do to stop it.
But first what is a pesticide? We looked at the WHO for what they consider to be one.
Pesticides are chemical compounds that are used to kill pests, including insects, rodents, fungi and unwanted plants (weeds). Pesticides are used in public health to kill vectors of disease, such as mosquitoes, and in agriculture, to kill pests that damage crops. By their nature, pesticides are potentially toxic to other organisms, including humans, and need to be used safely and disposed of properly.
World Health Organization
How Did They Get There
Since they are chemicals you may wonder how do pesticides get into what I consume. The growing demand for wine made a problem for farmers looking to keep up with it.
Winemakers needed to mass-produce grapes to make enough wine to meet consumer demand. To do this more efficiently they use chemicals to help keep away pests that can damage crops. The chemicals can contaminate the soil and stay on the grapes and end up in your bottle of wine.
The task of monitoring pesticide residue levels falls to the FDA, which has defined limits as to how much residue can be within a food product. However, they do not test every product for residues.
Our Findings on Pesticides in Wine
We tested 400 of the top-selling wines if they have pesticide residue on them. Read our full findings here and our full methodology here
As a result of our testing, we found 88% of all wines we tested have at least one pesticide.
45% were Myclobutanil. Which is moderately toxic to humans with a moderate water runoff risk
28% were Imidacloprid. Which causes Acute Pesticide Poisoning in humans if ingested in larger amounts
27% were Pyrimethanil. Pyrimethanil is classified as a Group-C chemical,
indicating it is a possible human carcinogen
Next Steps
The first step is to be aware of the problem and to ask for accountability from wine companies. We currently have a list of all pesticide-free products on our site here. We are always adding new products to it so you can stay up to date on what products go above and beyond
Check out some of the wines that we have certified pesticide-free here
