Eating food with high levels of pesticides has an adverse effect on the brain, according to a review of existing scientific evidence commissioned by the European Parliament.

The MEPs wanted to know whether organic food was healthier than conventionally grown crops and asked experts to look at the relevant research.

A report based on the review said a California study had found that children whose mothers had traces of organophosphate metabolites – the basis for many pesticides – during pregnancy were more likely to have “adverse mental development at two years of age, attention problems at three-and-a-half and five years, and poorer intellectual development at seven years”.

Another study calculated that an estimated 13 million IQ points a year are lost as a result of pesticides, which represents a loss of approximately €125bn (£109bn) across the European Union.