The latest report from the Pesticide Control Service suggests an urgent need to ensure effective monitoring of pesticides in fruit, vegetables, meat and cereals.
The agency, which operates under the Department of Agriculture and Food, analysed only 608 samples last year, according to its annual report. The capacity of its laboratory was reduced by a third at a time when it should have been significantly increased.
Its work was curtailed, primarily, by the need to develop systems and procedures to ensure its laboratory becomes independently accredited, as required under EU directives.
Up to 400 pesticides are in common use around the world, but legally binding safety limits in the form of "maximum residue levels" (MRLs) have been established in Ireland for only 269 pesticides. These apply to fruit and vegetables; food of animal origin or cereals. The 1998 report envisages more rapid setting of MRLs in future.
The Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Ned O'Keeffe, nonetheless, insisted the results indicate "good compliance by Irish food producers with pesticide residue regulations", as only seven Irish samples exceeded MRLs. The MRL was exceeded in 11 samples of imported produce.
The setting and adoption of MRLs is required to ensure authorised pesticides are correctly applied to crops and that consumers are not exposed to unacceptable pesticide residue levels. MRLs have been set for an additional 157 compounds used on fruit and vegetables, cereals and production of food of animal origin, but these are not yet included in the PCS's monitoring programme.
There is a pressing need to increase the number of pesticides being analysed; broaden the range of commodities sampled (including meat at abattoirs, poultry, eggs and animal feed-stuffs), increase the number of samples analysed and extend the range of pesticides for which MRLs are established. The report says this "requires a major investment in personnel and equipment".
The number of fruit and vegetable samples found to have excessive pesticide levels was 4.6 per cent, while 56 per cent were found to contain pesticide residues. Significantly, of some 95 samples produced by Irish growers in An Bord Glas's - the Horticultural Development Board - quality programme, only 11.6 per cent contained pesticides, none of which exceeded MRLs.
Monitoring of food of animal origin is restricted to the sampling and analysis of fresh meat, milk and dairy products of Irish origin. None of the residues found in bovine or sheep meat was of relevance from a consumer safety point of view. Under its violation investigation programme, designed to establish if there is a repeated or systematic abuse of pesticides, there were two instances of fruit and vegetables exceeding MRLs. A consignment of kiwi fruit was destroyed because of the level of iprodione found in it. Residues of cypermethrin (whose impact is of growing concern) exceeding the MRL were found in a sample of lettuce, in one case more than four times the limit. The consignment and the crop from which it was harvested were destroyed.
The PCS stresses many MRL breaches were technical and did not involve risk to consumers. Lettuce is the commodity most often found to contain excessive residues involving potential risks for consumers. Though routine monitoring indicated extremely low levels of pesticides in samples generally, a significant number of samples contained pesticides and isolated excessive residue levels, which were of concern. This indicated a need to develop further follow-up measures.
