EFSA Food Residue Report: 96% Compliant

The European Food Safety Authority has published its food pesticide residues report, featuring data collected from 74,000 samples of 350 different types of food in the European Union in 2007. The organization found that 96% of the samples analyzed "were compliant with the legal maximum residues levels (MRL) and 4% exceeded them, compared to 5% in 2006." The study sought to detect a range of 870 pesticides.

An official announcement stated, "EFSA specified that the presence of pesticides in foods, and even the exceedance of an MRL, does not necessarily imply a food safety concern. When an MRL is exceeded, consumer exposure needs to be calculated in order to assess whether this represents a potential risk for consumers.

The full report is available here

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