Pilot project allows consultation of the maximum residue limit in vegetable products for export

With the aim of assisting exporters regarding the Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) established by important commercial partners, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa) started the pilot project of LMR query by product and by importing country in an electronic system. The initiative aims to reduce the barrier to international trade in plant products.

The basis of the project was the collection and compilation of regulations on the MRLs of trading partners and key exported products. Initially, five products were worked on: peanuts, coffee, beans (pulses), corn and soybeans. The initial focus was Brazil, China, Egypt, the United States of America and the European Union. The information compiled fully reflects the data obtained, as officially made available by each country or economic bloc.

“This is just a first version of this system with great opportunities for improvement through the inclusion of information from other countries, other agricultural products, other importer requirements, and also user feedback”, highlights the director of the Inspection Department of Products of Plant Origin, Hugo Caruso.

The pilot project is part of 'ProDefesa - Knowledge and Innovation in Agricultural Defense', carried out in partnership between the Secretariat of Agricultural Defense and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPQ).

According to the director, the tool also has the possibility of interfacing with other existing databases, to make it a robust and updated query system for Brazilian exporters. “Our objective is to reduce the risk of non-conformities that could cause major losses to the agricultural export sector,” he said.

Codex Alimentarius

According to the Codex Alimentarius, the MRL is the maximum amount of pesticide residue officially accepted in food and feed when these pesticides are applied correctly in accordance with Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). The MRL can be expressed in parts of the pesticide per kilogram of food (mg/kg) or in parts per million (ppm).

Codex Alimentarius is the international reference body that has a committee on pesticides responsible for carrying out risk assessment, based on scientific evidence, to establish MRLs for different active ingredients in products of plant and animal origin. These standards aim to protect the health of the population and ensure fair practices in international food trade through the harmonization or equivalence of regulations between countries.

“While the Maximum Residue Limits established by Codex form the basis of globally accepted standards, an increasing number of countries are establishing their own MRLs in national legislation for agricultural products, representing great potential to create non-tariff barriers to international trade” , reports Caruso.

The lack of acceptance of the Codex Alimentarius MRLs by governments and regional authorities reduces the value of these standards as a standardized tool in international trade, meaning that producers have to comply with different MRLs to export to different markets, increasing the costs of controls without this means greater food safety.