Italian Wine With Fungicide Barred by FDA

Two shipments of Asti Spumante have been barred from the United States since tests found that the wine contains a chemical not approved for use in this country.

The Food and Drug Administration discovered the presence of the fungicide Procymidone during routine testing of the Italian wine earlier this month. It barred two shipments of Tosti, the second-best-selling Asti Spumante in the United States, from entering the country, a spokeswoman said.

The FDA said it would test about 200 shipments of wine over the next month for Procymidone as well as other chemicals.

Catherine Carnevale, associate director of the contaminants policy staff at the FDA in Rockville, Md., said the agency had ordered tests by the multi-residue method, “to test for much more than Procymidone.”

She said that the multi-residue test was being ordered, in part, because, “We don’t look at very much wine. We usually test produce, rather than finished products” for chemical residues.

She added that over the years when wine has been tested, “we find things in it, but not anything of regulatory significance.”

Procymidone is a commercial product used to prevent development of mold on grapes, Carnevale said. It is commonly used throughout Europe but is not used in the United States and thus is not generally regarded as safe for human consumption.

Because tolerance levels for Procymidone have not been established here, no amount of it in any product for human consumption is allowed. Carnevale said that any chemical found in any product at a level above 0.02 parts per million would be refused U.S. entry.

Robert Maxwell, president of the Washington-based National Assn. of Beverage Importers, said that Procymidone, manufactured by Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd. of Osaka, Japan, is widely used around the world to prevent mold on grapes “and there are authorized residual tolerances in those countries.

“FDA has not advised me that the presence of trace amounts (of Procymidone) carries any health risk, but (importers’ association) has sent product-alert memos to our members to say that Procymidone is not certified for use in the United States and because of that, the FDA has no established tolerance levels for it.”

A spokesman for a European trade organization, who requested anonymity, said that Procymidone was “under strong control all over Europe.” He said the chemical, in trace amounts, “is not considered dangerous,” but he didn’t know what tolerances were acceptable in Europe.

Tosti is imported by Tyfield Importers of Troy, Mich. Tyfield President Milford Lewis, through a spokesman, refused to be interviewed on the subject and referred callers to Maxwell of the beverage importers’ group.

The FDA said that tests for chemical residues would be conducted in seven port cities--Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia and Orlando, Fla.