Pesticide residue in raw fresh vegetables

Hi,

is anyone out there belonging to fresh vegetable processing???

Wanted to know how to monitor the pesticide residue in raw materials??? getting analysis done for every batch is costly affair???
how can I validate the reduced frequency of testing???


Thanks,
Shayaree

We have wriiten contracts with our farmers and very detailed pesticide usage records to make sure any pesticides used are targeting the correct organisms, and are applied at the correct rates. We then test each commidity once a year with an outside lab for results to make sure we are within the legal specifications. This has satisfied all audtiors.

Get agreemnets signed from your gorwers/supplers that they apply pesticides according to the regualtory requirements.

Also you may want to review their pesticide application forms ( if they keep any)

Then depending on your products, set up testing by testing each supplier at least once. If they supply more than one product randamly chose one. You can pool suppliers together and if the MRL exceed the limit then individulally re-test.

Or you can quaterly test each product or supplier. Again it depends where the supplier is located, how many and the risk factor.

I hope these solutions will work very well in case of organised suppliers....please tell me how do I control the supplies from un-organised suppliers.
when sourced from these small players, the number of suppliers are in 20-30 as they can supply only small quantities. more over the sourcing is done from farmer co-operatives ,where most of the original gowers might not be traced.

Thanks,
Shayaree

Hello,

I think MFSC makes a very interesting point. As such you will have a very difficult time validating anything if traceability isn't assured througout the chain.
My opinion is that cooperation is needed from your growers that you can identify the batches. We work with a system of 1 analysis per x tons indepent of which supplier. So look at your processing lets say you do low volume vegetables once a year and your top 5 multiple times. An interesting source to assign risk is perhaps a food alerts website or so to identify structural problems with pesticides (example RASFF in EU)

Thaks Philip.... fixing analysis schedule on volume basis is gr8.... should work in our system....