WRITTEN QUESTION E-1326/00

by Hiltrud Breyer (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(27 April 2000)

Subject: Pesticides affecting Spanish fruit and vegetables and the possibility of introducing an EU pesticides passport

In view of the high concentrations of pesticide residues on Spanish fruit and vegetables which have been found in recent weeks, a reported by the German Association of Fruit Trade Enterprises (Der Spiegel 9/2000, p. 86), and with a view to introducing an EU pesticides passport in response to the need for transparency for food safety, and in order to facilitated food checks, I should like to know:

1. Is the Commission aware that for a number of weeks now Spanish paprika highly polluted with pesticides have been supplied to Germany and that the permissible maximum concentration of the anti-mite product Methiocarb has been exceeded?

If so, when did the Commission receive the relevant data and to what extent have the public been informed?

2. What action does the Commission intend to take to comply with the need for transparency in food safety?

3. Since an increasingly broad spectrum of pesticides is being used, and food inspectors are not aware that they have been used, the search for plant protective residues has proved ineffective and it is at variance with the need for transparency in food safety. What action does the Commission envisage to put an end to this unacceptable state of affairs?

4. Does the Commission see any possibility of introducing a Union-wide compulsory EU pesticides passport on which the producer would note the use of different pesticides on the crops, thereby facilitating effective food checks (since false declarations would render the producer liable to prosecution)?

If not, what are the obstacles to a EU pesticides passport?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(23 June 2000)

The Commission has not been notified of excessive residues of Methiocarb. However, the Commission was made aware through the rapid alert system for foodstuffs, that Spanish peppers containing excess residues of methamidophos, of acephate and endosulfan were circulating in the Community at the end of 1999 and early 2000. All information received was immediately transmitted to the official contact points in the Member States for appropriate action.

In the white paper on food safety(1), the Commission reaffirmed its intention to apply full transparency in all matters relating to food safety, in particular by extending the level of transparency already achieved by making public scientific opinions, inspection reports, monitoring reports and similar documentation.

The Commission agrees that the functioning of the current system can be improved in line with the proposals outlined in the white paper on food safety. The increased number of rapid alerts being issued is linked to the increasing number of pesticides being set at the lower limit of analytical determination (zero) rather than a lack of data on residues and the introduction of residue limits for products which were previously unregulated. All plant protection products that are currently used in the Community are subject to the stringent safety requirements of Council Directive 91/414/EEC of 15 July 1991, concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market(2). Its provisions also include the need to have an appropriate analytical method to detect residues before authorisations can be granted by Member States. Increasingly these methods are multi-residue methods permitting the detection of a wide range of pesticides. Given the availability, applicability and actual use of both multi-residue and specific analytical methods by the regulatory authorities in the Member States, as well as the results of national and Community-coordinated monitoring programmes for pesticides residues in cereals, fruit and vegetables, the Commission does not agree that the search for plant protection product residues has proved ineffective. The lack of detection of residues is more likely to be an indication that residues are not present rather than a failure of the methods. Consistent with its view of the need for transparency in food safety, the results of the annual targeted Community-coordinated monitoring programmes for pesticides residues in cereals, fruit and vegetables are published each year on the Internet by the Commission, as are the reports of monitoring inspections made by its Food and Veterinary office.

The Commission has no plans at present to propose a Community-wide compulsory pesticide food labelling passport. At present only two Member States have obligatory schemes providing for the recording of pesticide use on the farm.

(1) COM(1999) 719 final.

(2) OJ L 230, 19.8.1991.