EFSA publishes annual report on pesticide residues
EFSA has just published its 2009 annual report concerning pesticide residues in food.
The report presents the results of the control of pesticide residues in food commodities sampled during the calendar year 2009 in the 27 EU Member States and two EFTA countries (Iceland and Norway).
It's a little more than 67000 samples representing 300 differents types of food that were analyzed to research pesticide residues by the national competent authorities.
In each European country and in accordance with regulation, two control programmes are in place: a national control/monitoring programme (designed by each country) and a coordinated European programme for which clear guidance is given on which specific control activities should be performed by the Member States.
According to the EU-coordinated programme 138 pesticides had to be analysed in 2009: 120 on food samples of plant origin and 32 pesticides in samples of animal origin.The European programme defined the 10 different food commodities to be analysed in 2009: aubergine, banana, butter, cauliflower, egg, orange juice, peas without pods, peppers(sweet), table grapes and wheat.
A total number of 10,553 samples were analysed.
The analysis of the results of the 2009 EU-coordinated programme has shown that 1.2% of the 10,553 samples exceeded the MRL, while 37.4% of samples had measurable residues above the analytical reporting level but below or at the MRL. 61.4% of the samples were free of measurable pesticide residues.
Out of the 138 pesticides tested, measurable residues were found for 111 different substances. The pesticide/crop combinations where residue values were measured most frequently were imazalil/bananas (49.5%), chlormequat/wheat (42.3%) and fenhexamid/table grapes (23.8%).
The highest percentage of samples exceeding the MRL was identified for table grapes (2.8%), followed by peppers (1.8%), aubergines (1.7%), peas (1.0%), wheat (0.8%), butter (0.6%), cauliflower (0.5%), bananas (0.4%) and chicken eggs (0.2%). No orange juice samples were found to exceed the legal limits.
In national monitoring programmes, the total number of samples taken and analyzed in the context of the national programmes in 2009 was 67978. The number of distinct pesticides sought was 834. Countries made considerable progress in expanding their analytical capacities which is an important element in guaranteeing food safety.
In total, residues of 338 different pesticides were found in measurable quantities in vegetables, 319 in fruit and nuts, while in cereals residues of 93 different pesticides were observed.
The pesticide/crop combinations which were most frequently exceeding the MRLs were ethephon in figs, tetramethrin in wild fungi, dithiocarbamates in passion fruit, nicotine in wild fungi and amitraz in pears.
BABY FOOD samples: 1888 samples were analyzed, residues above the reporting level were found in 110 samples, while the MRL was exceeded in 15 samples (0.8%).Regarding baby food, a general default MRL of 0.01 mg/kg is applicable for all pesticides, unless specific MRLs - lower than 0.01 mg/kg - are established under the specific EU legislation 2006/141. Seven of the exceedances RMLs concerned samples of infant formulae with residue levels of captan exceeding the legal limits. Other MRL exceedances in baby food/infant formulae were reported for pirimiphos-methyl, imazalil, chlorpropham, thiabendazole and diazinon.
ORGANICS samples: 3090 samples were analyzed by a total of 25 countries. At EU level, no specific MRLs for organic products are in place; thus, the MRLs established for conventionally produced products apply also to this food category to make an inventory.
For fruit and nuts grown organically, a lower rate of MRL exceedances (0.4%) was found in comparison to conventionally grown fruit and nuts (2.7%).
For vegetables the MRL exceedances of the samples were 0.5% and 3.4% respectively for organically and conventionally grown crops.
The following substances were found in organic samples, even if their use was not allowed in organic production: chlormequat, fenbutatin oxide, MCPA and MCPB, mepiquat, methabenzthiazuron and propamocarb. Also residues of CS2 - which is an indicator for the presence of pesticides belonging to the group of the dithiocarbamates - were found. However, since some crops contain natural compounds which also release CS2 during the chemical analysis the results cannot prove beyond doubt that dithiocarbamate pesticides were used.
In 2009, multiple residues of two or more pesticides in the same sample were found in 25.1% of the analysed surveillance samples. Important commodities with high frequencies of multiple residues were citrus fruit (56.6%), table and wine grapes (55.5%) and strawberries (53.8%). 299 unprocessed surveillance samples were found to exceed two or more MRLs. The commodity with the highest number of samples with multiple MRL exceedances was peppers (46 out of 1704 samples exceeded the MRL for two or more pesticides).
The results of the EU-coordinated monitoring programme were used to perform dietary exposure assessments.
The chronic (long-term) exposure assessment was based on the residue findings for the food commodities which are the major constituents of the human diet. EFSA concluded that residues found on these food commodities do not raise health concerns if consumed over a long period.
The assessment of the acute (short-term) consumer exposure was performed for the ten food commodities which were analysed under the 2009 EU co-ordinated monitoring programme. The
assessment was based on worst-case scenarios, supposing the consumption of a large portion of the food item under consideration containing the highest residue measured in the coordinated programme.
In order to accommodate for a possible non-homogeneous distribution of residues in an analysed food lot an additional variability factor was introduced in the calculation. Assuming a coincidence of these events (high food consumption, high residue concentration and inhomogeneous residue distribution in a lot), out of 10,553 samples a potential consumer risk could not be excluded for a total of 77 samples concerning 32 pesticide/commodity combinations. Taking into account the frequency of the occurrence of the critical residues (in less than 0.1% of the samples tested for the given pesticide/crop combinations) and the frequency of extreme consumption events, the events leading to a potential risk were considered very unlikely. The highest potential exceedances of the toxicological reference value were calculated for carbofuran residues in peppers (14,275% of the ARfD), oxamyl residues in peppers (9,510% of the ARfD), monocrotophos residues in peppers (7,557% of the ARfD), methomyl/thiodicarb residues in peppers (1,889% of the ARfD) and dimethoate/omethoate residues in table grapes (1,342% of the ARfD).
For 11 of the 32 pesticide/commodity combinations for which a critical short-term intake situation could not be excluded, risk management actions have been taken in the meantime, e.g. withdrawal of pesticide authorisations and/or lowering of the MRLs.
We invite you to read the report of the study directly on the site of ANSES at the following address:
