New EFSA report: 2020 data of chemical contaminants and veterinary drug residues in live animal and animal products

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has recently published its final report on the results from the monitoring of veterinary medicinal product residues and other substances in live animals and animal products in 2020.  Residues of veterinary medicinal products which are unauthorized or chemical contaminants in food pose serious public health concerns. The EU legislative framework (37/2010) defines maximum permissible limits in food for many residues and also has monitoring programmes for the control of the presence of these contaminants in the food chain.  

This report is the result of the framework of the residue monitoring programme of 27 European Union (EU) Member States, Iceland, and Norway as Council Directive 96/23/EC requires the Member States to implement a national residue monitoring plan for specific groups of residues specified to products such as aquaculture, honey, milk, egg, poultry, bovine, sheep & goats, horses, pigs, etc. and also to publish the monitoring data, control measures taken and outcome of the implementation, as this data has been collected by EFSA since 2018.  

A total of 620 758 samples were reported out of which 331 789 targeted samples and 4 259 suspect samples were reported under EU legislation 96/23/EC; 282 159 samples collected in the set of other frameworks of programmes developed under the national legislation; 2 551 samples checked at import. Key findings reported are as below:  

1. 888 (0.27%) samples of the targeted samples were non-compliant of which 0.34% is of antithyroid agents (A2) which was lesser than 2019 (0.58%).  
2. Non-compliant samples were reported for organochlorine and organophosphorus compounds at 0.1% and 0.01%, mycotoxins were reported for pigs (0.21%), horses (2.27%), and milk (0.26%), with the incidence of zearalenone, aflatoxin M1 and ochratoxin A.  
3. Non-compliant samples found in bovines were (0.11%), pigs (0.10%), horses (0.62%), sheep & goats (4.23%), Dyes (B3e) in aquaculture (0.62%) and honey (0.15%) There was only 1 non-compliant sample for beta-agonists (A5) in bovines.  
4. There was a decrease in the frequency of non-compliant for anticoccidials (B2b) in poultry, Steroids (A3) and on prohibited substances (A6) such as chloramphenicol, metronidazole, hydroxymetronidazol (MNZOH), semicarbazide, and nitrofurazone at 0.02% which is 0.01% in 2019 and also for chemical elements (including metals) (B3c).

The overall percentage of non-compliant samples in 2020 (0.19%) was lower than those in 2019 (0.30%) and also compared to the previous 11 years (0.25%-0.37%).    

 

Source:  

https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2903/sp.efsa.2022.EN-7143