According to the European Food Safety Authority's latest Annual Report on Pesticide Residues in Food in the European Union, 96.3% of the pesticide residues in the samples analysed in 2022 did not exceed the legal limits, which is basically the same as the figure in 2021 (96.1%).
According to the report, in 2022, the EU collected 110829 food samples for the first time, 1/4 more than in 2021. Among them, 96.3% of the samples were tested in accordance with the legal standards. Of the 11,727 samples analysed under the specific EU Harmonized Control Programme (EU MACP), 98.4% of the samples had pesticide residues within the legal limits.
It is reported that the program analyzed samples randomly taken from 12 food products, including apples, strawberries, peaches, wine, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, spinach, oat cereals, barley cereals, milk and pork fat. Of these, 6023 samples (51.4%) had no quantifiable residues, 5512 samples (47%) contained one or more residues at concentrations below or equal to the permissible range, and 192 samples (1.6%) had residues above the permissible limits.
Surveys of similar products are rotated every 3 years to determine trends in the increase or decrease of pesticide residues in specific products. The data shows that the overall rate of pesticide residues exceeding the standard decreased from 2% in 2019 to 1.6% in 2022. Compared to 2019 and 2016, the excess rates of apples, peaches, strawberries, wine and pork fats have decreased, spinach has decreased since 2019, and cabbage, tomatoes, lettuce, barley and cereal oats have increased.
In addition to the harmonized and comparable data collected under the above-mentioned EU schemes, the annual report of the European Food Safety Authority uses data provided by EU Member States, as well as relevant control projects in Norway and Iceland. As part of the results of the analysis, the European Food Safety Authority conducted a food risk assessment. This year, the report extends the probabilistic assessment methodology to all pesticide categories analysed under the EU Harmonized Scheme, with the aim of analysing the likelihood that consumers will be exposed to residues that exceed a certain safety threshold. Based on the results, the European Food Safety Authority considers the health risk to consumers from exposure to pesticide residues to be low.
Recent reports from the European Food Safety Authority also show that, according to the data collected, veterinary drug residues in animals and foods of animal origin remain at low levels. It is reported that the relevant monitoring data includes different categories of veterinary drugs such as hormones, antibiotics, environmental pollutants and prohibited substances.
In 2022, nearly 28,000 samples were collected in Italy, mainly from cattle, poultry and pigs, according to the report. Overall, the number of non-compliant samples accounted for 0.18%. In the last 13 years, the number of non-compliant samples ranged from 0.17% to 0.37%. For the 240,000 samples monitored in the European monitoring plan, the non-compliance rate rose to 0.27%, similar to the situation in the past four years, most of the non-compliant samples belonged to game meat, the failure rate of hunting samples was 6.3%, the failure rate of honey samples was 1.37%, and the non-compliance rate of other animal products was less than 1%.
(The content is from the European Times, compilation: Li Shuo, picture source: Pixabay, please indicate)