According to the latest figures released by EFSA, Europeans continue to eat food that is largely free of pesticide residue or which contains levels of residues within legal limit.
Key findings are:
- The reporting countries analysed 84,657 samples for 791 pesticides
- 96.2% (81,482) of the samples were within limits permitted in EU legislation and 50.7% of the tested samples were free of quantifiable residues.
- The majority of the tested samples (67%) originated from EU Member States, Iceland and Norway; 26.4% concerned products imported from third countries. For 6.6% of the samples, the origin of the products was unknown
- Legal limits were exceeded in 2.4% of samples for products from EU and EEA countries, legal limits were exceeded in 7.2% of the samples from non-EU countries
- Of the 1,676 samples of food intended for infants and young children, 98.1% were within the limits permitted in EU legislation; 89.8% of the samples were free of quantifiable residues
- 5,495 samples of organic food were taken in 2016, of which 98.7% were within legal limits; 83.1% of the samples were free of quantifiable residues