The monitoring programme for pesticide residues in food undertaken by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (DAFF) through its Pesticide Control Service (PCS), at Backweston, Co. Kildare, is aimed at ensuring that consumers are not exposed to unacceptable pesticide residue levels.

The new subsidiary legislation to govern pesticide residues in food proposed by Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department. Will take a positive list approach by primarily adopting the maximum residue limits and extraneous maximum residue limits of pesticides recommended by Codex.

Residue levels of drugs, pesticides and heavy metals in food commodities, is becoming a major concern for food regulators all over the world.

This plan covers the monitoring of pesticide residues and other agriculture chemicals in fresh fruits of mango for export to Japan. It covers the orchard growers, packinghouses, exporters, accredited test laboratories and the national reference laboratory, and the state/central government organizations involved in with the export certification of mangoes to Japan.

The Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) has met annually since 1963 to conduct scientific evaluations of pesticide residues in food. It provides advice on the acceptable levels of pesticide residues in food moving in international trade.

In recent years, the growing international trade in agricultural products has motivated farmers to pay close attention to pest quarantine problems and agrochemical residues in foods. Agrochemical residues in agricultural products are a major consumer health concern and can seriously damage trade between countries.

The 28 pesticide residues detected in this analysis of eight fruit items purchased inside the European Parliament building represent the tip of an iceberg: for in total the wider EU food chain is known to be contaminated with at least 324 different agrochemicals.