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Half of the 16 products tested were “less” or “unsatisfactory”, six of them were even contaminated with listeria.
At the start of the new gardening season, the Association for Consumer Information (VKI) evaluated 16 potting soils and is giving advice based on the result, which pregnant women at least heard years ago: always wear gloves when working with potting soil or wash your hands well afterward. .
The reason: 6 of the 16 soils (bellaflora, Dehner, Euflor, Gardenline, Günstiger Garten, Starkl) contained listeria and were rated “unsatisfactory”. In the 2019 test, there were only two products. “Listeria can cause listeriosis, a rare, food-borne illness. Most people become infected by eating raw food,” explains Christian Undeutsch, VKI project manager.
Listeria is also widespread in the environment, for example in sewage and soil. “Therefore, we recommend that you always wear gloves when working with potting soil or that you wash your hands very well afterward,” says Christian Undeutsch, calming down. “Listeria in potting soil does not pass into plants. In any case, vegetables should be washed thoroughly.”
In addition to the test, the filling volume of the products was also observed. The declared fill quantities on the packages deviated greatly from the determined values. 14 of the 16 products contained only 90 percent or less of the indicated amount. The negative front runner was Seramis with a meager 11.1 liters instead of 20 liters.
There is no legal regulation for organic
It is unclear how pot soils differ from others with the addition of “organic,” says Undeutsch, because there are no legal regulations for “organic” for such growing media. In any case, it obviously does not mean that the potting soil is also peat free. For example, 2 of the 8 “organic” products tested also contained peat. The use of peat in potting soils is criticized for ecological reasons, as peat extraction releases climate-damaging CO2 and peatlands are destroyed as special habitats for plants and animals.
Detailed test results are available at www.konsument.at.
