The 2022 European Union report on pesticide residues in food.

Under European Union legislation (Article 32, Regulation (EC) No 396/2005), the European Food Safety Authority provides an annual report assessing the pesticide residue levels in foods on the European market. In 2022, 96.3% of the overall 110,829 samples analysed fell below the maximum residue level (MRL), 3.7% exceeded this level, of which 2.2% were non-compliant, i.e. results in a given sample exceeded the MRL after taking into account the measurement uncertainty. For the EU-coordinated multiannual control programme subset, 11,727 samples were analysed of which 0.9% were non-compliant. To assess acute and chronic risk to consumer health, dietary exposure to pesticide residues was estimated and compared with available health-based guidance values (HBGV). Continuation of the probabilistic assessment methodology was consolidated to all pesticides listed in the 2022 EU Regulation providing the probability of a consumer being exposed to an exceedance of the HBGV. Overall, the assessed risk to EU consumer's health is low. Recommendations to risk managers are given to increase the effectiveness of European control systems and to ensure a high level of consumer protection throughout the EU.

The 2021 European Union report on pesticide residues in food.

Under European Union legislation (Article 32, Regulation (EC) No 396/2005), EFSA is to provide an annual report assessing the pesticide residue levels in foods on the European market. In 2021, 96.1% of the overall 87,863 samples analysed fell below the maximum residue level (MRL), 3.9% exceeded this level, of which 2.5% were non-compliant, i.e. samples exceeding the MRL after accounting for the measurement uncertainty. For the EU-coordinated multiannual control programme subset, 13,845 samples were analysed of which 2.1% exceeded the MRL and 1.3% were non-compliant. To assess acute and chronic risk to consumer health, dietary exposure to pesticide residues was estimated and compared with available health-based guidance values (HBGVs). A new pilot methodology based on probabilistic assessment was introduced to provide the probability of subjects being expose to an exceedance of the HBGV. Recommendations to risk manager are given to increase the effectiveness of European control systems and to ensure a high level of consumer protection throughout the EU.

The 2020 European Union report on pesticide residues in food.

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 2020, 94.9% of the overall 88,141 samples analysed fell below the maximum residue level (MRL), 5.1% exceeded this level, of which 3.6% were non-compliant, i.e. samples exceeding the MRL after taking the measurement uncertainty into account. For the subset of 12,077 samples analysed as part of the EU-coordinated multiannual control programme, 1.7% exceeded the MRL and 0.9% 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. Dietary exposure to pesticides for which health-based guidance values were available is unlikely to pose a risk to EU consumer health. In the rare cases where dietary exposure for a specific pesticide/product combination was calculated to exceed the health-based guidance value, and for those pesticides for which no health-based guidance value could be established, the competent authorities took appropriate and proportionate corrective measures to address potential risks to consumers. Recommendations are proposed to increase the effectiveness of European control systems, thereby continuing to ensure a high level of consumer protection throughout the EU.

The 2019 European Union report on pesticide residues in food.

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.

The 2018 European Union report on pesticide residues in food.

Under EU legislation (Article 32, Regulation (EC) No 396/2005), EFSA provides an annual report which analyses pesticide residue levels in foods on the European market. The analysis 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 2018, 95.5% of the overall 91,015 samples analysed fell below the maximum residue level (MRL), 4.5% exceeded this level, of which 2.7% were non-compliant, i.e. samples exceeding the MRL after taking into account the measurement uncertainty. For the subset of 11,679 samples analysed as part of the EU-coordinated control programme, 1.4% exceeded the MRL and 0.9% were non-compliant. Table grapes and sweet peppers/bell peppers were among the food products that most frequently exceeded the MRLs. 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 assessed levels for the food commodities analysed are unlikely to pose concern for consumer health. However, a number of recommendations are proposed to increase the efficiency of European control systems (e.g. optimising traceability), thereby continuing to ensure a high level of consumer protection.

Comparative study of the main top-down approaches for the estimation of measurement uncertainty in multiresidue analysis of pesticides in fruits and vegetables.

Practical "top-down" approaches appear to be the most suitable for the evaluation of measurement uncertainty in pesticide residue testing laboratories, where analytical procedures are routinely applied to a large number of pesticide/food combinations. The opposite approach, "bottom-up" evaluation of measurement uncertainty, leads to great difficulties in evaluating all of the pesticides in a consistent way. Among the top-down approaches, there are two main ways in which measurement uncertainty can be estimated: One is based on default values, which are based on previous extensive interlaboratory experience and the proven accuracy of the laboratory; these include the Horwitz equation or the fit-for-purpose relative standard deviation (FFP-RSD). The other is based on experimental data from the quality control work of the laboratory: within-laboratory reproducibility, interlaboratory validation, or a combination of results obtained in proficiency tests. The principal existing guidelines from various bodies (Eurachem, Nordtest, and Eurolab) all propose different approaches for calculating measurement uncertainty. In this paper, the main top-down approaches are evaluated and compared using the data from the European Proficiency Test Database for Fruits and Vegetables and the Multiresidue Method validation databases obtained from the National Reference and Official Laboratories in Europe. The main conclusion of the comparative study is that a default expanded measurement uncertainty value of 50% could satisfy all of the requirements for facilitating and harmonizing, worldwide, the intercomparability of the pesticide residue confidence results between laboratories.