European consumers not threatened by pesticides

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published its latest report on pesticide residue use in 2017 and its presence in food products estimated. The dietary risk assessment indicates that European citizens are unlikely to be exposed to harmful pesticide residue levels. The EFSA used the results to make several recommendations to increase the efficiency of the European control systems and protect consumers. Taking a look at the results, 4.1% of the 88,247 samples analysed fell outside of the legal limits. This is up from 3.8% in 2016. The product for which the highest number of cases was recorded was currants, followed by lemons. In 54.1% of the tested samples, no quantifiable residues were reported, while 41.8% contained quantified residues at or below the maximum residue levels (MRLs).