EFSA report: veterinary drugs residues at historic lows
Residues of veterinary drugs and other substances (such as environmental contaminants) in animals and food of animal origin continue to decrease in the European Union and, in parallel, compliance levels are increasing, according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)'s annual report.
The report, which summarizes the findings for 2021, includes the outcome of the analyses carried out in the 27 EU Member States and also those from Iceland, Norway, and United Kingdom (Northern Ireland).
A total of 621 205 samples were reported to the European Commission. Of these, 351 637 were targeted samples and 4 562 were suspects samples reported under Council Directive 96/23/EC, while 2 803 were samples collected at import and 262 203 were samples collected in the framework of programmes developed under the national legislation.
In 2021, the percentage of non-compliant samples was 0.17%. EFSA highlights that this is the lowest figure recorded in the historical span of the last 12 years, when non-compliance ranged from 0.19% to 0.37%. The figure for 2020 was 0.19%. These are even more significant data, considering the greater number of samples tested in 2021 compared to the previous year.
Compared to the previous four-year period, in 2021 the frequency of non-compliant results was decreased for antithyroid agents, while for steroids and resorcylic acid lactone was higher than in 2020 but lower than the previous years. Talking about prohibited substances, the frequency of non-compliance in 2021 was higher, but in line with that of 2017 and 2018. For other substances and environmental contaminants, chemical elements (including metals) and dyes, EFSA noted a decrease compared to the previous years.
The full dataset, comprising around 13 million analytical results, is available on EFSA's Knowledge Junction, an open repository that aims to improve the transparency, reproducibility, and re-usability of evidence in security risk assessments of food and feed.
Sources:
https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.2903/sp.efsa.2023.EN-7886
https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/data-viz/results-monitoring-vmpr-2021
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