Maximum residue limit

The maximum residue limit (also maximum residue level, MRL) is the maximum amount of pesticide residue that is expected to remain on food products when a pesticide is used according to label directions, that will not be a concern to human health.^[1][2]

Determination

The MRL is usually determined by repeated (on the order of 10) field trials, where the crop has been treated according to

It follows that adoption of GAP at the farm level must be a priority, and includes the withdrawal of obsolete pesticides. With increasingly sensitive detection equipment, a certain amount of pesticide residue will often be measured following field use. In the current regulatory environment, it would be wise for cocoa producers to focus only on pest control agents that are permitted for use in the EU and US. It should be stressed that MRLs are set on the basis of observations and not on ADIs.^{[citation needed]}

In medicinal plants

If MRL of some medicinal plant is not known it is calculated by the formula:^[3]

${\displaystyle MRL=ADI*W/MDI*100*SF}$

where SF is the

• MDI is the mean daily intake
• W is the body weight
• ADI is the acceptable daily intake

Ornamental crops

In some cases in the EU MRL's are also used for ornamental produce, and checked against MRL's for food crops. While this is a sound approach for the general environmental impact, it doesn't reflect potential exposure of people handling ornamentals. A swap test can eliminate this gap. MRL's for ornamental produce can sometimes result in a conflicting outcome because of the absence of pre harvest intervals (PHI) or withholding periods for ornamentals, specifically in crops where harvesting is continuous, like roses. This happens when a grower is following the label recommendations and the produce is sampled shortly after.^{[citation needed]}

MRL in the EU

Three key points are taken into consideration regarding MRL values in the EU regulation:^[4] 1) the amounts of residues found in food must be safe for consumers and must be as low as possible, 2) the European Commission fixes MRLs for all food and animal feed, and 3) the MRLs for all crops and all pesticides can be found in the MRL database on the Commission website.

See also

• Detection limits
• Maximum contaminant level
• Pesticides
• QuEChERS – method for testing pesticide residues

References