EFSA revises spirotetramat MRLs in certain crops

On Sep 16, 2013, European Food Safety Authority（EFSA) announced the modification of the existing MRLs for spirotetramat in strawberries, bananas, table olives, pineapples and shallots.

The modification details are as follow:

Code number	Commodity	Existing EU MRL (mg/kg)	Proposed EU MRL (mg/kg)
0151000	Table and wine grapes	2	1
0152000	Strawberries	0.1	0.4
0161030	Table olives	0.1	4
0163020	Bananas	0.1	0.6
0163080	Pineapples	0.1	0.3
0220030	Shallots	0.1	0.4

Austria, as the the evaluating Member State (EMS), received an application from the company Bayer CropScience to modify the existing MRLs for the active substance spirotetramat in various crops. In order to accommodate for the intended European uses of spirotetramat on banana, strawberries, table olives, grapes and shallots and the authorized uses on grapes and pineapple in the United States, the EMS proposed to raise the existing MRLs in all crops, except grapes. The EMS drafted an evaluation report in accordance with Article 8 of Regulation (EC) No 396/2005, which was submitted to the European Commission and forwarded to EFSA. According to EFSA the data are sufficient to derive MRL proposals for all crops under consideration. For grapes, EFSA confirms that no modification of the existing MRL is required. Based on the risk assessment results, EFSA concludes that that the residues of spirotetramat in banana, strawberries, table olives and shallots from the intended European uses and the import tolerance on pineapple will not result in a consumer exposure exceeding the toxicological reference values and therefore is unlikely to pose a public health concern.