The 2019 European Union report on pesticide residues in food

Abstract

Under European Union legislation (Article 32, Regulation (EC) No 396/2005), the EFSA provides an annual report which examines pesticide residue levels in foods on the European market. This report is based on data from the official national control activities carried out by EU Member States, Iceland and Norway and includes a subset of data from the EU-coordinated control programme which uses a randomised sampling strategy. For 2019, 96.1% of the overall 96,302 samples analysed fell below the maximum residue level (MRL), 3.9% exceeded this level, of which 2.3% were non-compliant, i.e. samples exceeding the MRL after taking the measurement uncertainty into account. For the subset of 12,579 samples analysed as part of the EU-coordinated control programme, 2.0% exceeded the MRL and 1.0% were non-compliant. To assess acute and chronic risk to consumer health, dietary exposure to pesticide residues was estimated and compared with health-based guidance values. The findings suggest that the residue levels for the food commodities analysed are unlikely to pose any concern for consumer health. However, a number of recommendations are proposed to increase the effectiveness of European control systems, thereby continuing to ensure a high level of consumer protection throughout the EU.

Keywords: European Union; acute; chronic; dietary exposure; food safety; maximum residue levels; national monitoring programme; pesticide residues; risk assessment.

Figure 1

Number of samples analysed per reporting country

Figure 2

Number of samples normalised per number of inhabitants

Figure 3

Origin of samples per reporting country

Figure 4

Origin of tested samples

Figure 5

Number of pesticides analysed by reporting country

Figure 6

Percentage of non‐compliant samples exceeding the MRL, organised by sampling strategy

Figure 7

Percentage of samples exceeding the MRL and non‐compliant by origin

Figure 8

MRL exceedance and quantification rates by country of origin (reporting countries) together with non‐compliant rate on the right margin

Figure 9

MRL exceedance and quantification rates by country of origin (third countries)

Figure 10

MRL exceedance rate and quantification rate for unprocessed food products

Figure 11

MRL exceedance rate and quantification rate for processed food products

Figure 12

Frequency of MRL exceedances per pesticide and sample origin

Figure 13

Glyphosate quantification rate and MRL exceedances rates

Figure 14

Trimethyl‐sulfonium cation quantification rate and MRL exceedances rates

Figure 15

Frequency of non‐compliant samples identified in the framework of the reinforced import controls under Regulation (EC) No 669/2009

Figure 16

Number of quantified residues per individual baby food samples

Figure 17

Comparison of organic and conventional foods

Figure 18

Pesticides most frequently quantified in organic samples (pesticides with at least five positive quantifications reported)

Figure 19

Number of samples of animal products tested, broken‐down by food group

Figure 20

Number of quantified residues per individual sample of animal origin

Figure 21

Number of different pesticide residues quantified in animal products

Figure 22

Percentage of samples with single and multiple quantified residues

Figure 23

Unprocessed food products most frequently containing multiple quantified residues

Figure 24

Processed food products most frequently containing multiple quantified residues

Figure 25

Results of acute dietary risk assessment without risk refinement for the highest residues reported by pesticide/crop combination (values are expressed as a percentage of the health‐based acute reference value or ARfD).

Figure D.1

Acute dietary exposure assessment – apples

Figure D.2

Acute dietary exposure assessment – head cabbage

Figure D.3

Acute dietary exposure assessment – lettuce

Figure D.4

Acute dietary exposure assessment – peaches

Figure D.5

Acute dietary exposure assessment – spinach

Figure D.6

Acute dietary exposure assessment – strawberries

Figure D.7

Acute dietary exposure assessment – tomatoes

Figure D.8

Acute dietary exposure assessment – barley

Figure D.9

Acute dietary exposure assessment – oats

Figure D.10

Acute dietary exposure assessment – wine grapes

Figure D.11

Acute dietary exposure assessment – swine fat