RESIDUES - Commission Proposals to Prohibit Certain Pesticides in Agricultural Products Used to Manufacture Infant Formula, Follow-on Formula and Baby Foods

There was broad support for the proposals although practical problems for monitoring and enforcement were evident.

The Commission agreed to consider:

• risk assessment data from a member State and industry representatives, which purport to show that exposure to some pesticides is well below the ADI (0.005 mg/kg bw/day) and therefore specific limits for these pesticides might be set for the final foodstuff, rather than a blanket ban on their use in raw agricultural products. The pesticides are cadusofos, monocrotophos, fipronil, ethoprophos, and fentin.
• whether the directives would apply to the use of these pesticides as seedcoatings, or on animal feedingstuffs. This would place a significant additional burden on manufacturers and enforcement bodies;
• how pesticides for which the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) had been withdrawn by the Joint Meeting of Pesticide Residues should be dealt with
• simplification of the directives by replacing those pesticides which are already prohibited for use in Europe with a reference to directive 79/117/EEC. It was not clear whether such an approach would be sufficient to cover products imported from outside the European Community; the Commission agreed to investigate this with their legal services;
• extending the coming into force date of the directive to the end of 2002, to take into account practical difficulties relating to crop growing seasons and the long shelf-life of products.

The Commission would not accept proposals that a limit of 0.01 mg/kg would generally be sufficient for pesticides which have an ADI of 0.0005 mg/kg bw/day, for example, carbophenothion.

A number of minor amendments to the texts were agreed. These are as follows:

Whereas Clauses

• An explanation as to why Probineb is included in the Annex will be added; Probineb has an ADI above the 0.0005 threshold, but it yields a highly toxic metabolite with an ADI of just 0.0003 mg/kg bw/day;
• Paragraph 2 (SANCO/967/2000 - rev I only) will be amended to reflect the provisional nature of the 0.01 mg/kg limit for baby foods. Appropriate wording from the fourth whereas clause of directive 1999/50/EC will be included in the texts.

Article 1

• The entry for demeton-S-methyl will be combined with that for oxydemeton-methyl, and a reference to demeton-S-methyl sulfone added;
• The title to the tables in the Annexes will be amended to read "Pesticides which shall not be used in raw agricultural products directly intended for the production .. "

No further working groups are anticipated before the proposals are discussed at the Standing Committee for Foodstuffs, as a preliminary step before the proposals are voted upon.