A drive past Coffs Harbour’s old banana farms is proof Australians are eating more berries than ever. The Big Blueberry has pushed the Big Banana out of town: berries are now NSW’s most valuable fruit crop, but regulations protecting consumers have not kept up with demand.
Concerns have surfaced about high pesticide residues on blueberries and raspberries grown in northern NSW after Kirsten Benkendorff, a professor of marine science at Southern Cross University, tested multiple samples of berries grown in the Coffs region and detected toxic insecticides, including one that is banned in Australia, thiometon, and another banned in Europe but not here, dimethoate.
There are concerns about high pesticide residues on blueberries grown in NSW. Credit: SHUTTERSTOCK
On Friday, the NSW Environmental Protection Authority and the NSW Food Standards Authority issued a joint statement to say there was no evidence of pesticide misuse and no evidence that blueberries from northern NSW were unsafe to eat. The statement also found that Benkendorff’s methodology and analysis used were “not accredited for testing fresh fruit such as berries, and therefore the results are unreliable”, a claim the professor disputes.
However, Benkendorff’s findings coincided with the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority decision to review the use of dimethoate on blueberries, raspberries and blackberries based on increased consumption of berries. It turns out that regulators have been using 30-year-old data to decide how much of a pesticide is allowed to be sprayed on Australian-grown berries, despite the industry growing exponentially.
[SRC] https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/australians-are-eating-more-blueberries-than-ever-consumers-deserve-better-protection-20251005-p5n04m.html
