Residue levels detected for pesticides inches up, flags EFSA

26 Apr 2023 --- The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has released its latest report on pesticide residues in food. The results of an analysis of 87,863 food samples collected in the European Union (EU) show that “96.1% of samples fell within legally permitted levels.”

The assessment program also included the EU-coordinated control program – the EU Multi-Annual Control Programme (MACP) – which analyzes samples randomly collected from twelve food products. This subset analyzed 13,845 samples, of which 97.9% were within legal limits.

The 2021 MACP selection, on which EFSA’s report is based, focussed on aubergines, bananas, broccoli, cultivated fungi, grapefruits, melons, sweet peppers, table grapes, virgin olive oil, wheat, bovine fat and chicken eggs.

Of these samples, 58.1% (8,043 samples) were found to be free of quantifiable levels of residues, 39.8% (5,507) contained one or more residues in concentrations below or equal to permitted levels (known as maximum residue levels, or MRLs), and only 2.1% (295) contained residues exceeding the permitted levels.

Every three years, the same selection of products is sampled, allowing trends to be identified.

The EFSA reports a slight increase in the rate by which pesticide residue is exceeding maximum residue levels.Maximum residue levels rising slightly
The rate by which pesticide residues exceed MRL has risen from 1.4% in 2018 to 2.1% in 2021. The average MRL exceedance rate was 1.4% in 2021, the same as in 2018. However, these results excluded grapefruits.

In 2021, EU member states highlighted the increased presence of pesticide residue on grapefruits that had been imported from outside the EU.

Overall, the report suggests that food commodities analyzed in 2021 are “unlikely to pose a concern for consumer health.”

However, the report also includes various recommendations to increase pesticide residue control system efficiency.

Pesticides in focus

Ambitions of the European Green Deal to halve pesticide use by 2030 have raised organic options as promising natural pesticide alternatives.

However, the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) warned earlier this year of “ecological trade-offs implied by an increase of organic agriculture,” such as increased pesticide use as more significant quantities of organic fertilizer being used across larger areas of land are needed to maintain the current level of productivity.

In response, IFOAM Organics Europe, the umbrella organization for organic agriculture in Europe, commissioned GLOBAL 2000 to investigate these claims, finding synthetic pesticides highly toxic compared to their organic counterparts.

By James Davies