The use of growth hormone in tomato and cucumber has been banned, said Hedayat Hosseini, chief of food and cosmetics division, at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a letter to the agricultural ministry. “While the injected hormone only affects the growth rate, it is still not clear if the substance is 100% harmless,” he said, Khabaronline reports. Studies on the hormone have found it to be potentially harmful to the environment and different plants species as “it also contains substances with pesticide traits,” he added. Therefore its use is banned.
