FPC president Dick Brighten said that the supplements so far show one side of the story. The final supplement in the series of three is due out this weekend.

'I can only speak for fruit and vegetable production, but there probably isn't any other country in the world where consumers can eat such safe fruit and vegetables as they can in the UK,' said FPC president Dick Brighten. 'The Food Standards Agency is absolutely brilliant at its job.' Brighten also criticised references to pesticides residues making fresh produce unhealthy and the issue of food miles. 'There is no disputing that eating fresh fruit and vegetables is beneficial for health,' he said. The examples of Brussels sprouts and peas imported from the southern hemisphere were 'unfair' he added, as the volumes involved are 'infinitesimally small'.

Brighten countered criticism of the supermarkets saying that they provide consumers with choice and have done a first-class job of bringing variety to consumers. The agenda of the journalists concerned appears to have been to dissuade consumers away from eating conventionally grown produce, he added. 'Some 98 per cent of the fresh fruit and vegetables we eat are grown conventionally and we have to defend the conventional as well as the niche organic,' he concluded.

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