Food contaminated by pesticides: a Brazilian situation overview

Abstract

Consumers are becoming increasingly demanding about products quality, including new decision variables at their purchases time. Information on nutritional aspects and the use of pesticides has changed consumer preferences. The new information strategies emerged in response to new consumer's behavioral characteristics and new competition characteristics of the food market. These strategies privilege the use of quality signals, such as labeling, traceability, certification, brand names and adoption of minimum quality standards. The main feature of Brazilian markets is the lack of minimum standards and strong information asymmetries. The market for fresh food is affected by the indiscriminate use of pesticides. The information analysis gathered by the Program for Pesticide Residue Analysis in Food (PARA) found a very worrying situation in Brazil. In this sense, with this paper, our aim is to bring more information about the pesticides contamination in the fresh food markets in Brazil. Transaction Cost Economics is adopted as a theoretical framework to examine the coordination among the agents on the chain and seek sustainable alternatives to reduce the excessive use of pesticides in food production.