There’s a particular kind of dread that comes not from dramatic disasters, but from the slow revelation that something you trusted completely was never safe to begin with.
That’s the feeling I had reading the Central Pollution Control Board’s latest findings out of Bengaluru. And if you eat vegetables — which I assume you do — it should give you pause too.
What the Data Says (And What It Means for Your Dinner Table)
In a CPCB study whose results surfaced in prominent Indian news outlets since yesterday, researchers tested 72 vegetable samples collected from markets across Bengaluru in FSSAI-approved laboratories. The findings were stark: 26% of samples — roughly one in four — exceeded permissible limits for lead contamination.
Nineteen samples came back positive. And among them, some vegetables carrying an “organic” label showed lead levels 20 times above safety thresholds. Banned pesticides including monocrotophos were also detected in samples.
This wasn’t the first alarm. The Environment Management and Policy Research Institute (EMPRI) had already published findings in 2023 after testing 400 samples of 10 vegetables — brinjal, tomato, capsicum, beans, carrot, green chilli, onion, potato, spinach, and coriander — from 20 stores across the city, spanning everything from premium supermarkets to local markets to organic stores and Hopcoms. They found cadmium levels in coriander and spinach reaching 52.30 mg per kg against a permissible limit of 0.2 mg per kg. Nickel exceeded permissible levels at 67.9 mg per kg in some samples.
The National Green Tribunal took suo motu cognizance. The CPCB was directed to verify the situation. Committees were proposed. Reports were filed. And through all of it, the vegetables kept moving through the supply chain, landing on plates across one of India’s most educated, health-conscious, and economically prosperous cities.
Nobody at the vegetable stall knew. Nobody at the supermarket checkout knew. The consumer certainly didn’t know.