It is time that pesticide manufacturers were held accountable for their products and made growers worldwide aware that they must comply with European regulations or risk scuppering their chances of exports to the EU.

Retailers are understandably very nervous about products treated with pesticides not compliant with EU legislation, so pesticide companies need to be upfront about what they are selling. It is not enough to know the commercial name of a pesticide – farmers must familiarise themselves with the ingredients too.

Take quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) for example –these are mainly used as disinfectants but in some countries also as pesticides and as part of biostimulants. Whereas the strict regulatory status regarding QAC residues is clear, residues on a variety of foodstuffs is an area of legal uncertainty.

Following an incident this summer, the EU Commission introduced a temporary safety level of 0.5ppm, pending further investigation.

The story is very similar to the morpholine incident in 2010, when the discovery of the unauthorised substance in fruit coatings led to a chain of events which could have lead to major trade disruptions.

It is outrageous that these incidents had nothing to do with food safety – they were in fact nothing more than administrative errors – yet they ended up costing growers millions of pounds in lost revenue.

The question is: what can the industry learn from these events? As the industry continuously looks for innovative solutions to contain microbiological contamination, improve the quality and extend the shelf life of fresh produce while trying to minimise pesticide residues, inevitably the boundaries of legislation are challenged.

Unfortunately, the regulatory approach to food contaminants remains largely fragmented in separate aspects covering biocides, fertilisers, food additives and plant protection products, creating potential loopholes in which operators can get easily lost.

In the absence of proper regulation, the industry will need to be even more cautious with the choice and use of protective solutions. Manufacturers, whether distributing biocides, fertilisers, food additives or plant protection products, will have to become more transparent with their customers about the content of their products. In turn, producers should be able to verify that their products will comply with the specifications of their respective export markets.

It is frustrating that pesticide manufacturers are reluctant to invest more in getting their products registered as compliant with EU legislation, but as this is not likely to change overnight it requires us all to scrutinise imported produce more carefully. —