Driscoll's sent berries with excess chemicals to Canada: whistleblower - CBC

I had several people ask me if I have second thoughts about my berry consumption in light of a swarm of news stories about some pesticide residues in Driscoll berries “exceeding Canada’s safety standards.” I’ve often talked about my breakfast of a mix of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and bananas smothered in unflavoured Greek yogurt and topped with Fiber One cereal, so the question about my being concerned was not unreasonable. To cut to the chase, I’m not concerned. I am quite aware of how “Maximum Residue Levels” or “MRLs” are determined and am equally aware of studies that place berries comfortably in the “healthy food” category. I think the benefits of eating berries outweigh any theoretical risk posed by pesticide residues even in the rare instances when these exceed the Maximum Residue Levels. I arrive at this conclusion based on what I’ll call an educated guess because the trial that would give us a conclusive answer cannot ever be done. That would require an experimental group and a control group matched in every possible way with the only difference being the types of berries consumed.