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Aliaime

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Posted 28 August 2014 - 08:09 AM

Hi all,

 

I am new here and I hope someone could help me on this problem.  The company I am working is a distributor and they distribute their goods (such as goji berry, sea buckthorn, etc) in different countries. My boss has asked me to check all the requirements of pesticide residue for several countries, like Australia, US, Japan, EU, etc.  Since I am kinda fresh in this field, I have no idea how the pesticide residue requirements like.  I have spent all day to search the requirement for those countries, but what I found is tons of pesticide limits.  I can see lots of different pesticide limits for the category of food.  It's terrible!

 

My question is , are all of  these different kind of pesticides required to be tested for the countries?  For example, I can see there are more than 20 pesticide limits listed in their standard requirements for each product, does that mean I will need to test for all 20 of pesticides in order to import the goods into those countries?  

 

I am very confused as I am not sure if I am on the right track.  Much appreciate if someone could give me some clue on this and sorry for my bad English.  Thank you.

 

Ali

 

 



debaduttajayaprakash

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Posted 28 August 2014 - 12:51 PM

Dear Aliaime

Pesticide residues are set for each and every food products in UK and EU and other countries you have listed have got more or less same requirement. But pesticide testing comes into play when there is a potential contamination risk from the environment such as fields and type of pesticides been used . It is unlikely that you will be testing each list of pesticide for for all product as it is not cost effective and also time consuming. 

You need to draw a risk assessment and find out what pesticide risk is there to your products such as active substances used in growing region and other historical evidences. Also this is a daunting process if you are only member in your team as it can take months to complete a risk assessment.

I will suggest go with country specific ban pesticide and   MRL and ask your lab to test for it . It is a list of around 240 Pesticides in EU but it is product specific so I will say around 100 of them . 

 

A UKAS or ISO17025 accredited lab do use same techniques and already got a list of what need to be tested. 

 

http://ec.europa.eu/...event=homepage 



Charles.C

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Posted 28 August 2014 - 02:20 PM

Dear  Aliaime,

 

Yr query normally overlaps the topic of Approved Suppliers and Product Specifications within the context of external regulatory requirements.  And a few other possibilities. However I have no idea of  the structure of yr local set-up for Production / Distribution / Export.

 

Pesticide contamination usually derives from either or both of  2 factors (a) environmental, (b) specific usage.

 

The former (a) may be outside your supplier’s control but hopefully local data is available regarding typical background “spectra”. This potentially enables a narrowing of the range of tested items although the scope of yr final analyses may still be determined by yr customers requirements. At least initially anyway.

 

The latter (b) is the responsibility of your supplier, ie to use locally approved chemicals in a recommended way, regarding which you should be fully informed  together with evaluation data on their appearance  in the finished product (hopefully nil). It is not unknown for “process” chemicals approved in some locations to be totally banned in others.

 

I don’t know if yr export procedure requires obtainance of a Government Health Certificate. If so, the scope of the analysis may give you some idea on existing local knowledge regarding any known current, issues, eg with respect to chemical contaminants.

 

Additionally, in many countries/districts, individual Product Categories have local Producer  Organisations which maintain information/databases for use by their members on topics such as pesticides.

 

Elsewhere, eg at destinations, the import control functions tend to be equally aware of problems often associated with produce from different areas and may focus initially on such factors. New safety issues are typically (rapidly!) broadcast on dedicated FS websites.

 

Rgds / Charles.C

 

PS - many Producers/exporters tend to rely on their customer supplying details of what analyses / specifications  must be provided for import control purposes. And for themselves of course, ie via a product specification.


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C


Snookie

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Posted 28 August 2014 - 03:59 PM

:welcome:  And your English is very good. 


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Aliaime

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Posted 29 August 2014 - 01:31 AM

Dear Aliaime

Pesticide residues are set for each and every food products in UK and EU and other countries you have listed have got more or less same requirement. But pesticide testing comes into play when there is a potential contamination risk from the environment such as fields and type of pesticides been used . It is unlikely that you will be testing each list of pesticide for for all product as it is not cost effective and also time consuming. 

You need to draw a risk assessment and find out what pesticide risk is there to your products such as active substances used in growing region and other historical evidences. Also this is a daunting process if you are only member in your team as it can take months to complete a risk assessment.

I will suggest go with country specific ban pesticide and   MRL and ask your lab to test for it . It is a list of around 240 Pesticides in EU but it is product specific so I will say around 100 of them . 

 

A UKAS or ISO17025 accredited lab do use same techniques and already got a list of what need to be tested. 

 

http://ec.europa.eu/...event=homepage 

 

Thanks. I found this database too so it means I need to test all listed pesticide items for each product I guess?



Charles.C

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Posted 29 August 2014 - 02:12 AM

Thanks. I found this database too so it means I need to test all listed pesticide items for each product I guess?

Any reliable knowledge is valuable, especially when you have none.

 

I hope you have an  unlimited budget.

 

But note that the interpetation of the results depends on the relevance of the samples.

 

Rgds / Charles.C


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C


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Posted 29 August 2014 - 08:19 AM

Thanks. I found this database too so it means I need to test all listed pesticide items for each product I guess?

http://www.codexalim...html?expand=CL1    I used Codex as a guideline, and I think it is generally acceptable. I searched by item and pesticide type, and took the lowest MRL to be on the safe side. I also got a listing of all pesticides used from my suppliers so you know exactly what to test for. I'm also new to this but so far this has worked for me.  Hope this helps


"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.."




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