Pesticide residues in fruit and vegetables from Africa - a Nordic Project Karlstr ö m U 1, Siivinen K 2, Hamborg Jensen B 3, Petersen A 3, Nielsen H 4, Skretteberg LG 5, B ø rge Holen 5, Jansson A 6, 1 Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira, Mustialankatu 3, Helsinki, Finland, 2 Finnish Customs Laboratory, P.O. Box 53, Espoo, Finland, 3 The National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, M ø rkh ø j Bygade 19, 2860 S ø borg, Denmark, and 4 Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, Division of Residues, Sondervang 4, DK-4100 Ringsted, Denmark; 5 Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research, 1432 Å s, Norway, and 6 National Food Administration, Box 622, SE Uppsala, Sweden, Introduction In order to cover more commodity/country-combinations, the Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark) are co-operating in monitoring. In 2008 the countries agreed to monitor samples from Africa. Together the Nordic countries analyzed a total of 623 samples from 18 different countries. Most of the samples came from South Africa (249), followed by Egypt (129), Morocco (92) and Kenya (88). In total 45 different commodities were analyzed, oranges (162) being the largest group, followed by beans with pods (80) and table grapes (71). In the analytical scope 220 to 345 pesticides and metabolites were covered. Results Most of the samples contained detectable residues (71.6 %). All together, 93 different substances were found. Imazalil, thiabendazole and chlorpyrifos were the three most frequently detected pesticides and mainly found in citrus fruit. MRLs (national and EU) were exceeded in 5.5 % of the samples. Totally 34 samples had residues above the MRLs. Risk assessment Totally 34 samples had residues above the MRLs. The acute intake was calculated for those pesticides which an acute reference dose (ARfD) has sbeen et either by EFSA, EU or JMPR. The calculations were done using the EFSA PRIMo model (version 2). None of the samples exceeded the ARfD. However, in peppers the acute intake resulted in very high exceedance (976 %) when ARfD for ethion was set to ADI (0,002 mg/kg bw/day) and variability factor 7 was used. ARfD value was not available as ethion is not included in Annex I to Directive 91/414/EEC. In practice, this type of exceedances would be considered dangerous to consumers and products would be withdrawn from the market. Product No. of samples > MRLCountrySubstance (No.> MRL) Highest result mg/kgMRL mg/kg ARfD mg/kg bw/day % of ARfD PRIMo (vers. 2) Most critical consumer groupV factor Oranges12EgyptDiazinon (8) * UK infant7 Dimethoate (2) * UK infant7 Fenitrothion (2) * UK infant7 Passion fruits2ZimbabweAldikarb (1) * BE child1 Trifloxystrobin (1) *Not appl. Passion fruits9KenyaDithiocarbamates (1) * BE child1 Dimethoate (3) * BE child1 Thiophanate-methyl (6) *0.20.3BE child1 Carbendazim and benomyl (1) * BE child1 Chlorothalonil (4) *0.60.2BE child1 Beans with pod6KenyaEthion (1) *Not available Dimethoate (5) * NL child1 Dithiocarbamates (1) NL child1 Famoxadone (1) *0.20.9NL child1 Pomegranates2EgyptMethomyl and Thiodicarb (1) * UK Todler7 Lambda-cyhalothrin (1) * UK Todler7 Table grapes1EgyptThiophanate-methyl (1) *0.25.1DE child5 Peppers1EgyptEthion (1) *Not available Strawberry1EgyptProfenofos (1) *10.2DE child1 Thiophanate-methyl (1) *0.21.2DE child1 Products exceeding MRLs. Risk assessment by using the EFSA model PRIMo, Tullilaboratorio