FDA tests threaten Brazil orange juice imports

Health regulators said they will stop imports of orange juice from top grower Brazil if they test positive for an illegal fungicide, sending orange juice futures soaring on Tuesday to an all-time high.The Food and Drug Administration reported traces of the fungicide carbendazim in orange juice sold in the United States, in a letter to the Juice Products Association on Monday.

While low levels of the fungicide were not dangerous and it planned no juice recall, the FDA said it would stop all shipments at the border if it found more traces of carbendazim, which is banned in the United States.

The pesticide is legal in Brazil, which supplies more than one-tenth of U.S. orange juice.

The Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates fungicides in the United States, conducted an initial risk assessment for the chemical and found it does not raise safety concerns, according to the FDA’s letter.

Brands such as Tropicana, from PepsiCo Inc, and Minute Maid, from Coca-Cola Co, may use a mix of juices sourced from Brazil and the United States.

The FDA could not immediately comment on what level of carbendazim would be acceptable.

The EPA considers 80 parts per billion to be a health risk. The levels of the fungicide reported recently by a juice company to the FDA were below that level, the FDA said.

Orange juice futures jumped almost 11 percent to an all-time high on Tuesday, as fears spread that U.S. regulators could ban orange juice from Brazil, the world’s largest orange juice exporter.

Christian Lohbauer, spokesman for CitrusBR, the association that represents Brazil’s four main orange juice producers, said Brazil has been using the fungicide for more than 20 years. It is used to fight blossom blight and black spot, a type of mold that grows on orange trees.

“Any shipment (of orange juice) will test positive,” he said. “I don’t know what is the level that they will decide is the maximum level,” he said. “Our interest now is that juice keeps entering the United States.”

He said all Brazilian orange juice is routinely tested for this fungicide, but has never before been stopped by U.S. customs over this issue.

A juice company told the FDA two weeks ago that it had found low levels of the substance in orange juice sold in the United States. The FDA did not say which company had informed it about the fungicide.

Coke spokesman Dan Schafer referred reporters to the Juice Products Association for comment “as this is an issue that impacts every company that produces products in the U.S. containing orange juice from Brazil.”

Association officials were not immediately available to comment. PepsiCo had no immediate comment.

Total frozen and fresh orange juice imports in 2010 came to nearly 1 billion liters, according to U.S. International Trade Commission data. Of that almost half, about 460 million liters, came from Brazil, with Mexico supplying about a third.

The FDA said in an email to Reuters that much of the orange juice tested did not have detectable levels of the fungicide. For those that did, the levels were between 10 and 35 parts per billion, less than half the 80 parts per billion level that would be considered a health risk by the EPA.

The EPA could not be immediately reached for comment.