On 6 Dec., 2012, the Ministry of Agriculture of China (MOA) and Ministry of Health of China jointly released a new national food safety standard—Maximum Residue Limits for Pesticides in Food (hereinafter referred to as the new standard), which is planned to be formally carried out on 1 March, 2013, according to CCM’s December issue of Crop Protection China News.
As the new standard is to be carried out since 1 March, 2013, the other six national standards and ten agricultural industry standards regarding maximum residue limits on pesticides will be simultaneously abolished, such as national food safety standard Maximum Residue Limits on Pesticides in Food (GB 2763-2005), Maximum Residue Limits on Chlorothalonil and Other 11 Pesticides in Food, etc. The overlap of these maximum residue limits in different standards has greatly affected the law enforcement of related government departments. Take chlorothalonil for example, the maximum residue limits on chlorothalonil in peanut are all set at 0.05mg/kg in the national standard GB2763-2005 and the agricultural industry standard NY662-2003. While the maximum residue limits on chlorothalonil in wheat are set at 0.1mg/kg in the national standard GB2763-2005, but in the agricultural industry standard NY662-2003, they are set at 0.05mg/kg.
After the abolishment of those standards, the new standard will become the only mandatory national standard for domestic pesticide residue in food safety monitoring system, which effectively avoids hindrance to law enforcement and helps to realize the unification of the pesticide residue standards.
It has been three years since the MOA started to revise the former standard in 2009. With the consideration of risk evaluation of pesticide residue in every new item and an in-depth study of Codex Alimentarius (CA), all of the 2,293 items were formulated by the MOA basing on the field trial data of pesticides residue, the monitoring data of pesticide residue in agricultural produces and the dietary consumption structures of residents in China. Plus, the revision of the new standard has been appraised by the members of WTO and accepted by most of them.
There are 2,293 items regarding maximum residue limits on 322 kinds of pesticides involving in ten large categories of agricultural produces and food in the new standard. Comparing with the former standard carried out in 2005, 1,400 new items have been added into the new one. The new items regarding maximum residue limits on pesticides in fresh agricultural produces, such as vegetables (915), fruits (664), edible fungi (17), etc. accounts the most in the new standard.
Besides all these regular items, a new concept of pesticide residue limits item has been put forward and used in the new standard, namely group limits item of like agricultural produces. It is set basing on pesticide residue trial data of the agricultural produce which owns the largest consumption and highest residue risk in a group of like agricultural produces. Thus the group limits item is the general pesticide residue limits standard of the whole agricultural produces in the group. There are totally 780 group limits items regarding 28 groups of agricultural produces in the new standard and they are believed to further expand the covering rate and the application range of pesticide residue limits in agricultural produces.
Although the new standard has added 1,400 new items and the MOA planned to increase the total amount of the items regarding domestic maximum residue limits on pesticides in food to 7,000 (according to the plan in 12th Five-Year Development Plan of Quality and Safety of Agricultural Produces), there is still a large gap between the amount of items compared with CA (3,820) and some developed countries, such as Japan (50,000) and the US (11,000).
Source: Crop Protection China News 1223
http://www.cnchemicals.com/Newsletter/NewsletterDetail_16.html
Content of Crop Protection China News 1223：
New national standard of maximum residue limits on pesticides in food released
No. 1 central document of 2013 again to focus on agricultural issues
First paraquat SG gains registration in China
Microcapsule formulations eye bright market prospect in China
Domestic seed treatment agent industry ready for expanding
Anti-dumping investigation shocks pyridine market seriously
Huapont to change name into Huapont-Nutrichem
Jiangsu Yangnong to expand production by setting up pesticide subsidiary
Analysis of China's pesticide Imp. & Exp. in Jan.–Oct. 2012
Crop Protection China News, a monthly publication issued by CCM on 15th & 31th of every month, offers timely update and close follow-up of China’s Crop Protection industry dynamics, analyzes market data and finds out factors influencing market development
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