The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs last year ran more than 18,500 samples of food and other foodstuff-related products such as water and fodder through laboratory tests for analysis to detect levels of toxic and harmful substances.

According to Yousif S. Al-Saif, the ministry’s undersecretary, the aim of these tests was to define the levels of harmful substances like insecticides, heavy elements, additives and preservatives, in these products.

Speaking at a workshop organized by the Eastern Province Municipality, he said a certified drug laboratory with ISO rating was chosen to analyze samples that were collected throughout the year.

Part of the analysis was carried out in the ministry’s laboratories, and results proved the safety of many experiments, he said.

The ministry was committed to conducting a comprehensive survey of the Kingdom’s markets to determine the volume of harmful substances in foodstuffs, fruits and vegetables, whether local or exported and compare the results of the study with similar international researches, he said.

Fahd Al-Jubair, the Eastern Province mayor, said all studies and researches indicated that the levels of pollutants did not exceed 5.6 percent.

The apparatus required for measuring levels of pollutants in fruits and vegetables was available in the Kingdom, he said, adding that the municipality does not allow any vegetables to be sold in the market unless they pass the laboratory tests.

The workshop’s objective was to present the results of studies and researches that were conducted in the past three years. These results will be discussed to determine the level of harmful substances in food in the Kingdom, compare them with similar global studies, and come up with recommendations to define the roadmap for scientific research in curbing the effects of food pollutants.

He said the workshop discussed insecticides in fruits, vegetables and foodstuffs.

It also discussed the level of heavy elements in fruits, vegetables, foodstuffs and water, in addition to determining the percentage of additives and preservatives in processed food.

Participants also discussed the presence of hormones and antibiotics in meat and poultry, as well as salmonella and campylobacter in poultry and its derivatives.