Multiple Departments Have Released National Food Safety Standards, Increasing the Limits for Pesticide Residues

Introduction: Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health jointly released the national food safety standard, "Maximum Residue Limits for Pesticides in Food." The new standard will take effect on March 1, 2013, and the previous six national standards and ten agricultural industry standards related to pesticide residue limits in food will be simultaneously repealed. The new pesticide residue limit standards have been significantly expanded from the original 837 to 2293.

It is reported that my country's original pesticide residue limit standards only specified 873 residue limits for 201 pesticides in 114 agricultural products. The new standard specifies 2293 residue limits for 322 pesticides in 10 major categories of agricultural products and food, basically covering the main agricultural products consumed daily by Chinese residents, representing a significant breakthrough in both the number of standards and coverage.

What are pesticide residue limits? An official from the Ministry of Agriculture explained that a residue limit in a standard refers to the prescribed limit for a single pesticide in a single agricultural product. Because each pesticide has a different scope of application, a single pesticide may be approved for use on multiple crops. Therefore, residue limits (MULTIS) need to be specified for each pesticide in different agricultural products. For example, my country has approved the use of abamectin on 15 agricultural products, including rice, cotton, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, radish, and apples. Therefore, the new standard specifies 15 MULTIS for abamectin in these 15 agricultural products.

The new standard has the most MULTIS for fresh agricultural products such as vegetables, fruits, and tea. Vegetables have 915 MULTIS limits, fruits 664, tea 25, and edible fungi 17.

An official from the Ministry of Agriculture stated that compared with the Codex Alimentarius (CAC) standards, the United States, and Japan, my country's pesticide residue standards still lag behind. Currently, the CAC has 3,820 MULTIS standards, the United States has 11,000, and Japan has over 50,000. According to the "12th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Agricultural Product Quality and Safety" formulated by the Ministry of Agriculture, by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan period, my country will have 7,000 pesticide residue limits.