(Chuncheon=Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Jae-hyun = The safety of agricultural products sold at local food stores in Gangwon Province is improving every year.
According to the Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Health and Environment Research Institute on the 3rd, the safety inspection results for residual pesticides in agricultural products sold at local food stores in the province showed a non-compliance rate of 0.7%.
This is a decrease of 7.2 percentage points from 7.9% in 2022.
This inspection was conducted on 152 items, including 105 cases of vegetables, 27 cases of fruits, 12 cases of documents, 3 cases of grains, 3 cases of mushrooms, and 2 cases of legumes.
The inspection focused on vegetables, which had a relatively high non-compliance rate.
One case of lettuce that was judged to be non-compliant was immediately recalled and disposed of, as notified to the relevant agencies.
Additionally, to prevent further distribution and recurrence, education and publicity for producers and sellers were requested to be strengthened.
The Health and Environment Research Institute has been systematically promoting safety inspections of local food agricultural products since the establishment of the Agricultural Products Inspection Division in 2020.
The "high-risk focused management" system, which includes expanded inspections of stores with a history of non-compliance and re-inspection of agricultural products from the same producers, has greatly contributed to the improvement of the non-compliance rate.
As a result, the non-compliance rate of local food agricultural products has continuously decreased, from 7.9% in 2022, 5.8% in 2023, to 2.8% last year.
Shin In-cheol, Director of the Gangwon Health and Environment Research Institute, said, "We will strengthen agricultural product safety management so that residents can use local food with peace of mind."
jlee@yna.co.kr