Couscous – molds, pesticides and petroleum components [Ökotest 2023]

There is a new test by “Ökotest” in Magazin 5 – 2023 that deals with couscous products.

Couscous is a North African dish made from moistened wheat semolina and then grinding it into balls. The semolina is then steamed over boiling water.

Here is an interesting video on YouTube showing what couscous is made of and how it is made.[1]

“Ökotest” bought 20 varieties of couscous made from durum wheat, 12 of which were identified as organic products. “Ökotest” then had the products tested for harmful substances in a laboratory, with a focus on harmful substances that are more frequently found in grain products.

The products were also examined for residues of pesticides and mineral oil components. “Ökotest” emphasizes that based on past experiences/tests, these occur in many foods, not just couscous or grain products.

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Test results

The worst grade was “satisfactory”. And this grade was only awarded three times. It is interesting here that there is also an organic product among them, namely that from “Kaufland”, as there were traces of mould, pesticides and mineral oil components.

The other two “3s” did not come from organic production and also showed traces of mold, pesticides and mineral oil components.

The grade “very good” was awarded 14 times. All organic products, with the one exception already mentioned, were rated “very good”. However, these 14 products were not all free from traces of said residues.

For example, the product was rated “very good” by “Rossmann” even though it showed traces of mold and mineral oil. There was no pesticide exposure. The same applies to the products from “Penny”, “Koro” and “Aldi Nord/Süd”.

The couscous products rated “good” showed pesticide residues and additional residues of mold or mineral oil.

This makes the grading by “Ökotest” somewhat opaque or incomprehensible. Because products with residues of mold and mineral oil are still rated as “very good”, while other products with residues of pesticides and another substance only get the grade “good”.

For me, the question here is: are the worst residues from pesticides, which immediately make the product appear points worse?

Or have people already gotten used to the presence of contaminants in food at “Ökotest”, so that they now only look out for how few contaminants are in the food and base their rating on that?

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price comparison

On the cheaper side are the products from “Aldi” at EUR 1.13 (for 500 grams), “DM” at EUR 1.15 and “Rewe” and “Rossmann” at EUR 1.19. All four products were rated “very good”.

The most expensive products, rated “very good”, come from “Koro” at EUR 2.50 and “Rapunzel” at EUR 2.59.

The most expensive product at EUR 5.45 is offered by “Demeter”, rated “very good”, with only traces of mineral oil and no traces of pesticides or mold.

“Trace” of pesticides

It is interesting here that not only traces were found, but also which pesticide is involved here, namely Pirimiphos-methyl.

This substance also appeared in a previous review of whole wheat pasta that I reported on in 2020:

Four of the products tested here contained this specific pesticide and most likely received two “fair” and two “good” ratings because of this.

Pirimiphos-methyl is extremely toxic to bees, which is why it is no longer approved in Germany.

How good is wheat anyway?

Of course, this question was not part of the “Ökotest” test. Like many other types of grain, wheat contains so-called “glutinous proteins”, which can provoke intolerance and can prove to be very disadvantageous in the case of existing intestinal diseases (celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome, colitis, etc.):

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Sources:

This post was created on May 1st, 2023.