Pesticides in foods: new figures published
Europeans continue to eat food that is largely free of pesticide residues or which contains levels of residues within legal limits, according to latest monitoring figures from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
More than 96% of samples analysed for the latest annual report on pesticide residues in food were found to be within legal limits, and around 51% were free of any quantifiable residues.
“As in previous years, this report confirms the high level of compliance of food on the shelves in the EU,” says Vytenis Andriukaitis, EU commissioner for health and food safety. “Every year, thousands of food products are controlled by Member States to check that the legal limits are being respected. That’s because we owe it to European citizens to make sure that the EU’s food chain not only remains the most stringent and controlled in the world, but is also one that we are very serious about continuously improving.”
To coincide with the publication of this year’s report, EFSA has developed a simple graphical tool that enables users to see the main findings by country and food product. The new tool is available in four languages and complements the existing data ‘dashboards’ which present the results in greater detail and allow comparison with previous years.
The tool is available at: http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/microstrategy/pesticides-dc-2016
