Literature review on minimising pesticide residues

Friday 12 March 2004

The Food Standards Agency funded a review of academic literature relating to the minimisation of pesticide residues in food, which was carried out by the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC). The report, which was completed in April 2003, reflects the views and opinions of the contractor, SAC.

The review was carried out to help the Agency develop an action plan to minimise pesticide residues in food.

It found that fungicides and growth regulators are the most commonly found residues and that post-harvest treatments lead to more residues than applications in the field. The levels of residues reported in the literature were not found to present a risk to people’s health.

At the moment, the use of pesticides in agriculture is decreasing, in the UK and the European Union (EU). The review looked at a number of options that should help to further reduce the amount of pesticides used and may reduce residues in food as a result. These include crop husbandry techniques, organic agriculture, plant breeding and changes in post-harvest pesticide use.

The report concluded that the following options are likely to have the greatest impact on reducing pesticide residues:

• maintaining plant-breeding programmes, to increase and develop resistance to the main pests and diseases
• developing further the understanding of the links between pesticide applications and the presence of residues in foods, and making appropriate information available
• developing organic agriculture and other ecological methods for those crops where they are most likely to be successful in producing substantial yields, quality and level of production
• transferring methods of crop protection developed in organic farming to conventional and integrated pest-management systems
• changing post-harvest treatment of crops with improved store design and management