More Than 10,000 Pesticide Residue Standards Have Been Established in My Country, And the Pesticide Residue Standard System Will Be Basically Complete by 2020

Yesterday, it was learned from the Ministry of Agriculture that my country's pesticide residue standard system is under accelerated construction, with plans to formulate more than 10,000 pesticide residue standards by 2020. At that time, a comprehensive and complete pesticide residue standard system will be formed, basically covering major agricultural products, aiming to achieve the goal of having standards to follow in pesticide production, standards to test products, and standards to judge enforcement.

Cao Chengyu, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Pesticide Industry Association, stated that a sound pesticide residue standard system will encourage pesticide manufacturers to pay more attention to pesticide residue testing when developing new products, and will urge pesticide manufacturers to conduct self-testing of pesticide residues to ensure that pesticide products meet standards. It is understood that the Ministry of Agriculture has currently formulated 5,450 residue limit standards for 387 pesticides in 284 agricultural products, increasing the number of pesticide residue standards in my country by 4,580 from the previous 870, covering the vast majority of agricultural products and primary processed products. The Ministry of Agriculture has established a Pesticide Residue Standards Review Committee to fully utilize the results of pesticide registration trials, risk assessments, and residue monitoring, and to draw on relevant standards from developed countries and international standards to accelerate the formulation and revision of pesticide residue limits, continuously improving guidelines for safe pesticide use and thus perfecting the pesticide residue standards system.

Experts from the Ministry of Agriculture stated that my country updates its pesticide residue standards annually. Although my country has basically established a pesticide residue standards system for agricultural product quality and safety, it still cannot fully meet the needs of food safety work, let alone the needs of food import and export and trade dispute resolution. Furthermore, due to the large variety and quantity of agricultural products, there are still significant gaps in pesticide residue standards. Updating the pesticide residue standards system not only expands the types of food and agricultural products and the varieties of commonly used pesticides in agricultural production, enhancing the systematicness and comprehensiveness of the standards, but also provides strong support for standardizing standard setting and aligning principles, procedures, and methods with international standards.

Therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture will work with relevant departments to further strengthen the construction of the pesticide residue standards system, planning to achieve 10,000 pesticide residue standards by 2020 through five years of effort, thus basically perfecting the pesticide residue standards system.

It is understood that the Ministry of Agriculture will take multiple measures to achieve this goal. These include prioritizing the evaluation and conversion of Codex Alimentarius standards for pesticide residue limits to align my country's national food safety standards with international standards; organizing the development of new pesticide residue limits in batches through various methods, prioritizing the development of residue limits for pesticides already approved for use in my country but for which no residue limits have yet been established, and improving residue limits for fresh agricultural products such as vegetables and fruits; conducting a centralized review and revision of testing method standards established before the promulgation of the Food Safety Law to address the issue of matching testing method standards for pesticide residue limits; and developing and revising basic technical specifications such as the "Guidelines for Pesticide Residue Testing" to standardize pesticide residue risk assessment techniques and ensure the scientific rationality of standard development.