Fresh produce residues study released

Results from a Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) study that looks at chemical residues in fresh, unwashed produce indicate that most growers are using pesticides responsibly in the recommended manner. None of the residues found posed health or food safety concerns.

The annual Food Residue Surveillance Programme (FRSP) targets locally-produced and imported crops prone to exceeding the maximum residue limit (MRL) set for agricultural chemicals. MRLs are used to determine whether growers have followed good agricultural practice (GAP).

This year’s focus is on asparagus, eggplant, feijoas, hops, lemons, olive oil, persimmons, pumpkins, spring onion, sweet corn, tamarillos and walnuts. In total, 352 chemicals are being tested for in the fruit, vegetable and oil samples.

Food Assurance Programmes Manager Paul Dansted says the first quarter results were largely pleasing. The only issue found was that six out of 23 tamarillo samples contained the insecticide deltamethrin over the allowable limit. The residue levels found were not at levels that pose any health or food safety risk.

“Our safety assessments show that an average-sized adult weighing 70 kilos would need to eat six kilos of the tamarillos with the highest residue levels to reach the acceptable daily intake for deltamethrin,” Paul says. “Nonetheless, we are concerned to see this level of non-compliance so we are visiting the non-compliant growers to figure out what could be the reason for the residue levels being so high.”

Testing also found residues of the fungicide captan or the insecticide diazinon in six out of 37 samples of feijoas. These samples were all sold as organic produce

“Although all the residues complied with the MRLs for these compounds, we were surprised to find any residues at all in these samples because they were sold as organic produce. We have alerted the Commerce Commission to these findings,” Paul says.

The format of the monitoring programme has been changed so the chosen foods are now sampled whenever they are available over a 12-month period, rather than sampling foods twice over a short period of time. This new format will provide a more comprehensive picture, as it allows for seasonal variation in the food. The results are reported on after each quarter of testing.

Testing of persimmons and feijoas has been completed during the first quarter.

Results from this year’s FRSP will be available on our website as they come to hand:
Food Residues Surveillance Programme

For answers to common questions about agricultural compound residues in food see:
Agricultural Compound Residues in Food

Issued by:
Miriam Meister, Senior Communications Adviser, Telephone: 04-894 2466 or 029-894 2466
Email: miriam.meister@maf.govt.nz