“My tomatoes were full of mold!” : it’s the brand

You can never be safe with food products and today in this article we will talk about tomatoes and the presence of mold on them. In recent months there have been numerous withdrawals of batches of tomatoes belonging to a well-known Italian brand. The answer comes from Germany, which seems to have created a valid test to understand which brands actually comply with the laws in the health sector.

All these withdrawals have clearly generated great confusion among consumers who now no longer know which brand to trust to be sure of enjoying a healthy product. Industry experts say they have analyzed a number of over fifty different types of tomatoes: specifically, they have looked for the presence of mold toxins or chemical pesticides. Among the brands analyzed, there are also many Italian batches concerned by the presence of substances harmful to our organism. From these studies, it emerged that one in five brands of tomatoes contained toxins indicating the presence of mold.

According to consumer associations, this disgusting situation stems from the fact that not only healthy and ripe tomatoes, but also moldy and spoiled products were harvested and bagged. In general, researchers say that these toxins are quite toxic to humans, but it all depends on the amount and type of toxin they develop. Indeed, in certain particular cases, if the patient already suffers from allergies or has had to deal with previous poisonings, the intake of these new toxins could be fatal to him.

But let’s see what toxins it is to be exact. Toxins have been found from fungi of the genus Alternaria, fungi that often colonize tomato plants because they find a natural habitat there. As some studies report, these toxins are able to damage the genetic material and inhibit the production of endogenous proteins, necessary and fundamental for the maturation of many organs considered “vital”.

The brands most affected by these contaminations are unfortunately the ORGANIC brands, since they are the most exposed to possible vectors or contaminants precisely because the pesticides or chemical products are not completely used on the raw materials to ward off insects. The producers of these companies have tried to justify themselves in every way, saying that in order to obtain a product that can be considered BIO, it is advisable not to use toxic substances that, reducing exposure to mold to a minimum, but are also very harmful.