To meet the high quality criteria for food, very effective methods are needed to control insects and other pests during storage. Chemical SPP products are widely used for this purpose. However, the number of active substances which may legally be used in storage protection is very limited. High efficacy of the substances is often linked with high toxicity also towards humans. This gives rise to concerns for the safety of workers and/or consumers. A large variety of food and food products comes in contact with SPP products and consumers may be exposed to these chemicals via residues in food. Storage protection is an area that falls both under the biocide and the pesticide legislation. An an overview is given on available active substances (biocides and pesticides) and some specific residue problems including the current state of discussion in the EU.
AbstractWe aimed to quantify spray drift-based exposure of fruits and vegetables grown in gardens or allotments next to agricultural areas to plant protection products (PPP). The amount of spray drift transported into gardens during the treatment of tall growing crops or field crops was simulated. Two different test systems in an outdoor wind tunnel were used, approximating conditions for the application to both crop types. For the experiments, strawberries, tomatoes and lettuce were used representing non-target food crops in gardens. After spraying, distance-related residues of the tracer pyranine were measured on the three food crops positioned 1–15 m downwind in the non-target area. Additionally, petri dishes were placed in front of the food crops to measure the ground deposition concurrently. For both scenarios, good correlation of residues on the non-target food crops and the ground deposition was found (linear regression model, R2 = 0.88–0.97). But unlike the field crops scenario, the experimental setup of the tall growing crops shows large deviations from the field situation, not allowing the transfer of the results to the field situation. The results of the wind tunnel experiments and of field trials on ground deposition were used to estimate the amount of PPP residues on food crops cultivated near agricultural fields. For example, application of a pesticide (1.3 kg active ingredient per ha−1) to field crops was estimated to result in residue levels of 0.39 mg kg−1 on lettuce, 0.32 mg kg−1 on strawberries, and 0.06 mg kg−1 on tomatoes cultivated 5 m from the field, thus indicating an exceedance of the default maximum residue level (MRL) (0.01 mg kg−1). Therefore, further in-depth studies are required to broaden the range of non-target crops and to refine the tall growing crop scenario to allow estimations of spray drift-based residues.
