Roast dinner shock: Key ingredients treated with a cocktail of 102 pesticides, some banned in the EU

Imagine settling down for a perfect pub lunch on a sunny Sunday afternoon. A classic roast arrives with all the trimmings: carrots, peas, parsnips, potatoes, and a rich onion gravy, followed by a sweet helping of strawberries and cream. It feels like the ultimate rustic meal.

However, that traditional plate may be hiding a troubling secret. A report by Greenpeace, published on Thursday, has revealed that the key ingredients of this beloved meal have potentially been treated with a cocktail of more than 100 different pesticides. Using data from the government's Fera pesticide usage survey for 2024, the campaign group found 102 pesticides were used across just seven categories of vegetables and soft fruit. More alarmingly, seven of these chemicals are currently banned for use in the European Union due to health concerns.

What's really in your roast?

The breakdown of the findings paints a worrying picture for what’s on our plates. Those fluffy roast potatoes may have been sprayed with benthiavalicarb, a fungicide banned across Europe because it is believed to cause cancer. They may also have been treated with metribuzin, a herbicide banned for being an endocrine disruptor, which can interfere with hormones.

The report suggests carrots could have been treated with the insecticide spirotetramat, whose EU approval has expired and can be lethal to bees and fish. Peas are often sprayed with S-metolachlor, an herbicide that poses known risks to mammals and has been linked to groundwater contamination.

And for dessert, those juicy strawberries may have been doused with clofentezine, dimethomorph and mepanipyrim. All three are banned in the EU after being identified as endocrine disruptors that may have harmful effects on both human and animal hormones. The analysis found that onions and leeks were treated with 43 different pesticides, while carrots and parsnips were treated with 40.

A countryside 'drenched in pesticides'

Greenpeace found that not only were crops sprayed with a wide range of chemicals, but many were also dosed repeatedly. "Our countryside is being drenched in pesticides, with devastating consequences for bees, birds, butterflies, rivers and the soil," said Nina Schrank, a senior campaigner at Greenpeace UK. "Fields that once hummed with wildlife are falling silent while agrochemical giants rake in enormous profits and farmers are trapped in a costly cycle of chemical dependency."

The report highlights that this extensive use of pesticides is having a severe impact on the natural world, pointing to stark declines in bird, butterfly and hedgehog populations. It argues that our dependence on these chemicals has led to "terrible, unintended consequences for entire ecosystems."

The ‘cocktail effect’ concern

Adding to the unease is the "cocktail effect," a term used by campaigners to describe the unknown toxicological impact of mixing multiple pesticide residues. According to the Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN UK), safety limits are set for individual pesticides, largely ignoring the potential for these chemicals to become more harmful when combined in the body.

Further analysis by PAN UK has also revealed the presence of PFAS, known as "forever chemicals," in UK food. These persistent substances, which can take centuries to break down, have been detected in a range of fruits and vegetables, raising further questions about long-term exposure.

How are these chemicals regulated?

In response to the report, a spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: "We place strict limits on pesticide residue levels in food, which are set after rigorous risk assessments to make sure levels are safe for consumers. These limits apply to both food produced domestically and imported from other countries."

The National Farmers' Union (NFU), which refers to pesticides as plant protection products, stated that farmers only use these chemicals when necessary. The union insists they are "among the most highly regulated chemical products in the world" and has warned that crop yields could fall by as much as 50% without them. This debate comes after reports in September 2024 that the UK government had weakened pesticide residue safety limits for a range of food items, including potatoes.

The government published its UK Pesticides National Action Plan in March 2025, setting a target for a 10% reduction in environmental harm from pesticides by 2030. However, Greenpeace is arguing for a much more ambitious 50% cut in use, impact, and toxicity by the same deadline, calling for the UK to realign with EU standards as a baseline.