EFSA recommends to withdraw dimethoate's authorisations on some crops

After a prioritised review of the existing maximum residue levels (MRL) for insecticide dimethoate, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded that a possible risk to consumers was identified for the most critical Good Agricultural Practices (cGAPs) that are currently authorised on melons, Chinese cabbages and sugar beets.

 

The Member States are therefore in any case recommended to withdraw their national authorisations for melons and Chinese cabbage where no fall-back MRL could be derived by EFSA. For sugar beet, EFSA recommends that the national authorisations are being modified in order to comply with the fall-back GAP identified by EFSA.

 

It is noted that the intake concerns identified for melons and sugar beet showed that the enforcement LOQ of 0.01 mg/kg which is currently validated, is not sufficiently protective for consumers. Moreover, according to the results of the residue trials which were performed with more sensitive analytical methods, for most of the commodities under assessment it could have been possible to derive MRLs at a lower LOQ level. Therefore, it is recommended to develop and validate more sensitive analytical methods for enforcement allowing to set MRLs at the lowest LOQ achievable.

 

Dimethoate is an active substance that was included in Annex I to Directive 91/414/EEC on 1 October 2007 by Commission Directive 2007/25/EC and has been deemed to be approved under Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009. On 29 March 2016, the French authorities informed the European Commission of a request to take emergency measures as regards the use of plant protection products (PPPs) containing dimethoate on vegetables and orchards/fruits and the placing on the market of cherries from the Member States (MSs) or third countries where the use of such PPPs is authorised. EFSA was requested by the European Commission to assess the available information on dimethoate and its residues and metabolites. EFSA finalised its statement on the assessment of the risk to human health through the pesticide active substance dimethoate and its metabolites in food on 8 April 2016. On 7 June 2016, EFSA received a further mandate from the European Commission, while awaiting the outcome of the renewal procedure and subsequent Art. 12 maximum residue level (MRL) review, to conduct a MRL review under Art. 43 of Regulation (EC) No 396/2005.