Nearly half of the foods analysed in 2019 in 30 European countries contained residues of at least one pesticide, according to the EFSA report published on 7 April on the summary of the results of official controls carried out by EU Member States, Iceland and Norway in 2019, and the EU-coordinated control programme (EUCP).
However, EFSA considers that there is no cause for concern for the health of consumers, as a total of 96.1% of the 96,302 samples analysed are within the legally permitted maximum residue limits (MRLs) and this figure rises to 98% for the EUCP.
In the EUCP, the analysis was carried out on randomly collected samples, on a three-year rotation, of 12 products - apples, head cabbage, lettuce, peaches, spinach, strawberries, tomatoes, oat grains, barley grains, wine (red and white), cow’s milk and pig fat.
Of the 12,579 samples analysed, 45% (5,664) contained one or more residues at or below the permitted levels, 53% (6,674) were free of quantifiable residues and 2% (241) contained residues at levels exceeding the MRLs.
Compared to 2016, exceedance rates increased for strawberries (from 1.8 to 3.3%), cabbage (from 1.1 to 1.9%), wine grapes (from 0.4 to 0.9%) and pig fat (from 0.1 to 0.3%).
For glyphosate, the MRL exceedance rate in 2019 was 0.1%, as in 2018.
Acute exposure assessment was carried out for 182 pesticides in 19,767 samples. The health-based guidance value was exceeded in 0.9% of the samples.
Several non-EU approved pesticides were found in random samples of food grown in the EU at levels exceeding the MRLs.
In spinach, up to five non-approved pesticides were observed, all exceeding their MRLs.
See the report: https://bit.ly/3cWBQDp (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)