Pesticide residues - How do I know my food is safe?

Pesticide residues: how do I know my food is safe?

1 July 2009

Within the next few days the latest EU annual pesticide residues report will be published. Its findings are based on samples of fruit, vegetables, and cereals collected in 2007. Nothing new there of course, as this has been a yearly feature in the European Commission’s calendar for over a decade. However, this year all stakeholders are intrigued to see if the results differ in any way.  For the first time, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has taken over the management of the report following a new process involving the Commission and Member States.  

Year on year, the report has always shown consistently low presence of pesticide residues in our fruit and vegetables with approximately 96% with either no residues or within the legal limits, however each year sensational stories hit the headlines based on this report implying that food in Europe is full of dangerous pesticide residues and the consumer is at risk. Left wondering who and what to believe, there’s a danger that we are slowly giving up on foods that have long been associated with a balanced diet, for fears of these residues. But are we really at risk?

So as we near the publishing of EFSA’s first residues report, we took the opportunity to ask a couple of industry experts about pesticide residues on food. Peter Watson, a registration expert from Dow AgroSciences and Otto Klein, a residues expert from BayerCropscience explain how the EU annual monitoring programme works, what residues are and why we have legally set maximum residue levels (MRLs) in Europe and around the world.

If your access to Youtube.com is blocked please tell us.

Further resources

To learn more about residues and MRLs, watch this short webinar.

For further reading see our FAQ section on food safety and residues, plus our Food quality & safety pages.