The Ministry of Agriculture's new standard for maximum pesticide residues
A few days ago,Ministry of AgricultureThe national food safety standard "Maximum Residue Limits of Pesticides in Food" was jointly issued with the Ministry of Health. The new standard will be implemented from March 1, 2013. The previous 6 national standards and 10 agricultural industry standards involving the maximum residue limits of pesticides in food will be abolished at the same time. The new maximum residue limit standard for pesticides reached 2,293, an increase of more than 1,400 compared with the original standard.
Integrate multiple legacy standards
There are more than a dozen original standards for pesticide residues, and the residue limits of the same pesticide in peanuts and wheat are different
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture said that before the promulgation and implementation of the Food Safety Law, there were more than a dozen different standards related to pesticide residue limits in our country. Among them, there are 3 national standards: "Maximum Residue Limits of Pesticides in Food" (GB2763-2005), "Maximum Residue Limits of Pesticides in Food" (GB2763-2005 No. 1 Revised Order), and "Food Hygiene Standards" (GB2715-2005). There are as many as 10 industry standards, such as "Maximum Residue Limits of Pesticides in Agricultural Products" and "Maximum Residue Limits of 20 Pesticides in Vegetables and Fruits".
These standards intersect, duplicate, and even have some contradictions. Such as pesticideschlorothalonilIn peanuts, the national standard GB2763-2005 and the agricultural industry standard NY662-2003 are repeatedly stipulated as 0.05 mg/kg. The limit of chlorothalonil in wheat, the national standard GB2763-2005 stipulates 0.1 mg/kg, and the agricultural industry standard NY1500-2007 stipulates 0.05 mg/kg. Another example is the banned phosphamine, and the national standard GB2763-2005 in rice is still stipulated as 0.1 mg/kg, which obviously does not meet the national requirements for strengthening the management of banned pesticides, so the new standard is revised to a stricter "0.02 mg/kg".
After the Food Safety Law was promulgated and implemented in 2009, it was required to integrate the existing standards for the quality and safety of edible agricultural products, food hygiene standards, food Quality Standards and industry standards related to food, and publish them uniformly as national food safety standards. To this end, the Ministry of Agriculture has stepped up efforts to comprehensively clean up the national standards and industry standards related to pesticide residue limits, and at the same time speed up the formulation of new pesticide residue limit standards. With the cooperation of relevant departments, through three years of efforts, the Ministry of Agriculture has completed the task of integrating and revising the original standards and unifying them into one standard text.
The most standards for fresh food products
The old standard had only 837 residue limits, while the new standard had 2,293, including a total of 1,579 pesticide residue limits for fruits and vegetables
According to reports, our country's original pesticide residue limit standards, only 201 kinds of pesticides in 114 kinds of agricultural products, 873 residue limits. The new standard guidelines set 2293 residue limits for 322 kinds of pesticides in 10 categories of agricultural products and foods, which basically cover the main agricultural products consumed by residents in our country. There are relatively large breakthroughs in the standard quantity and coverage rate.
What is the residue limit? The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture explained that 1 residue limit in the standard refers to the specified limit of 1 pesticide in 1 agricultural product. Since the scope of use of each pesticide is different, 1 pesticide may be approved for use in multiple crops, so 1 pesticide needs to formulate residue limits in different agricultural products. For example, our country approves abamectin in rice, cotton, kale, Chinese cabbage, radish, apple and other 15 agricultural products, so the new standardavermectinThis pesticide has 15 residue limits in 15 agricultural products.
Why are 2293 residue limits stipulated? According to reports, these 2293 pesticide residue limits are all based on our country's pesticide residue field test data, routine monitoring data of pesticide residues in agricultural products and residents' dietary consumption structure, fully docking with international Codex Alimentarius standards, making revisions on the basis of threat and risk assessment, and widely soliciting the opinions of the public and relevant industry sectors, and accepting the scientific evaluation of the standards by members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to ensure that the standards are scientific, open and transparent. From the safety point of view, the threat and risk assessment results of the new standard are all within the safe range, which can ensure the consumption safety of residents.
In the new standard, vegetables, fruits, tea and other fresh agricultural products have the largest maximum residue limits of pesticides, including 915 pesticide residues in vegetables, 664 in fruits, 25 in tea leaves, and 17 in edible fungi.
There is still a gap with international comparison
At present, there are 3,820 international Codex Alimentarius standards, more than 1,500 more than our country. At the end of the "12th Five-Year Plan", our country will reach 7,000 standards
The new standard also established for the first time the group limit standards for similar agricultural products (such as 780 limit standards for 28 crop groups such as cereals, leafy vegetables, and citrus fruits) and the maximum residue limit standards for primary processed products (59 limit standards for 12 processed products such as wheat flour and soybean oil).
The group limit is to select the agricultural products with large consumption and the highest residue risk in the same group of agricultural products as the representative crops, and formulate the pesticide residue limit standard based on the pesticide residue test data of the representative crops. Therefore, the group limit standard is the common residue limit standard for all agricultural products in the same group of crops. The group limit of 28 groups of agricultural products formulated in the new standard in our country will help to expand the coverage and scope of use of the residue limit. In addition, the new standard recommends supporting detection method standards according to the requirements of the Food Safety Law, which improves the operability of the new standard.
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture said that the implementation of the new standard is conducive to standardizing the scientific and rational use of pesticides by farmers and controlling pesticide residues from the source. Second, it provides a statutory technical basis for the supervision of agricultural product quality and safety, which is conducive to the performance of regulatory duties by governments at all levels. Third, it is conducive to promoting international trade in agricultural products. The new standard has been scientifically reviewed by members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) during the formulation process and has been recognized by most members, which will have a positive impact on the export of advantageous agricultural products in our country.
The person in charge also said that compared with the Codex Alimentarius Standard (CAC), the United States and Japan and other countries, there is still a certain gap in our country's pesticide residue standards. At present, there are 3,820 CACs, 11,000 in the United States, and 50,000 in Japan. According to the "Twelfth Five-Year" Development Plan for Agricultural Product Quality and Safety formulated by the Ministry of Agriculture, by the end of the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", our country's pesticide residue limit standards will reach 7,000.
