A senior official at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries urged those in charge of vegetable and fruit quality control throughout the country to be mindful of testing hazardous residue from pesticides on the produce.

The call came at a training on "Using testing kits for fruit and vegetable quality control" on May 12 at the Centre for Safe Vegetable Collection, Quality Control and Distribution under the Kandal provincial agriculture department.

Meas Piseth, ministry undersecretary of state and director of the Agriculture Services Programme for Innovation, Resilience and Extension (ASPIRE), said it was important to test the fruit and vegetable and control their quality.

“When we all consume toxic food that contains no nutritions, it affects our health leading to wasting, stunting ... It prevents us from growing well physically and mentally and our family will suffer as a result. Bad food makes us face many kinds of diseases when we get older,” he said.

Buntuon Simona, provincial agriculture department director and head of ASPIRE for Kandal province, said the training on pesticide testing was to support safe vegetable production chain, increasing trust among producers and buyers, and to ensure safety for customers and consumers.