Food in Europe amongst the safest in the world – key findings of the latest EFSA Annual Pesticide Residues Report The European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) latest Annual Report on Pesticide Residues contains findings from tests carried out in 2012 on nearly 79,000 samples– and found that overall 98.3% of these food products were within the maximum residue levels (MRLs) of pesticides permitted in the EU. More pesticide residues exceeding the MRLs were found in food imported from countries outside the European Union 7.5% than in samples originating from EU and EFTA 1.4% The EFSA report concludes that the presence of residues found in food in 2012 was unlikely to have a long-term effect on the health of consumers “Yet again the EFSA report shows a very high compliance rate – this is especially good news for consumers and for all involved stakeholders including regulators, farmers, and the industry. It confirms the continuous progress of the practices, demonstrates both the current high-level skill of pesticide users and the high level of food safety that we continue to benefit in Europe,” said Jean-Charles Bocquet, Director General of the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA). “The crop protection industry takes consumers’ concerns about pesticide residues and the multiple assessments of residues seriously. Together with local partners, we have established projects focusing on training and advisory programs to support the management of residues through the promotion of Integrated Pest Management principles and good agricultural practices.” “We will continue working with stakeholders in order to keep improving results on residue management and to foster consumers trust in food safety” Bocquet concluded. — Note: ECPA are working with a number of stakeholder partners to organise a food residues workshop in January; a key focus of the workshop will be to evaluate the current data and to consider what improvements are possible to further improve the residue monitoring results. Please see https://residues-workshop.eventbrite.com for further information.