As the holidays approach, the consumption of sparkling wine is growing, especially the protagonist of the end-of-year celebrations. A new test, conducted by Lifesaverhowever, returns to a burning topic regarding this much-loved product. In fact, the analysis found, in almost all the bottles tested, traces of pesticides.
For the test, they were taken as a sample 12 bottles of Asti Spumante Docg on which they were conducted laboratory tests to identify the presence of chemical residues.
What was discovered? Well, only one sparkling wine was completely free of pesticides even if – let’s point it out straight away – all residues identified in the remaining 11 bottles were within legal limits. On the Lifesaver it reads:
No substance detected exceeds the legal limit, so all the wines examined comply, however the functional profile of the pesticides detected is surprising.
But first let’s find out which brands fared worse, finishing at the bottom of the ranking.
Sparkling wines with more pesticides
The Lifesaver in particular, it rejected 4 brands in which more pesticides were found, although always within legal limits. These are:
The pesticides found and their effects
Among the most common residues found in sparkling wine, the test reports:
In the majority of cases, the residues found were fungicides: why? This is how the experts explain it:
There is certainly a reason linked to the cultivation of vines: fungi – the main ones being downy mildew, powdery mildew and botrytis – are one of the problems of this crop, especially linked to the combination of rain and drought. It is legitimate, however, to suspect that phytosanitary treatments carried out with different molecules of the same “family” – for example fungicides – could have served to avoid exceeding the legal limit of a single pesticide.
The good news is that at least glyphosate, a known potentially carcinogenic herbicide, has not been found in any sparkling wine.
To find out the complete results of the test, refer to the December issue of Salvagente.
