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Report of Pesticide Residue  Monitoring Results of the Czech Republic for 2005

Concerning Directive 90/642/EEC, 86/362/EEC and Recommendation 2005/178/EC

1. Summary
 
2. Organisation of the monitoring programmes and sampling
 
3. Quality assurance
 
4. Other information 

Tables according to EU reporting format:

• Table A1 – Part I  Summary of numbers of samples, sample origins and result,  surveillance   sampling, national and co-ordinated programme
• Table A1 – Part II Summary of numbers of samples, sample origins and result, follow-up enforcement sampling, national and co-ordinated programme
• Table A1 – Organic Summary of numbers of samples and results
• Table A2 – Part I  Fruits and vegetables: Summary table of pesticides sought and found,     surveillance sampling, national and co-ordinated programme
• Table A2 – Part II  Cereals: Summary table of pesticides sought and found, surveillance sampling, national and co-ordinated programme
• Table B: Notifications of the co-ordinated programme (specific exercise) to the European Commission
• Table C: Notification of the results of Check sampling of the National programme to the European Commission
• Table D1: Details of residues exceeding EC-MRLs, surveillance sampling of fruits, vegetables and cereals, national and co-ordinated programme
• Table D2: Details of residues exceeding non-harmonised MRLs including national MRLs,  surveillance sampling of fruits, vegetables and cereals, national and co-ordinated programme
• Table D3: Details of residues exceeding EC-MRLs , follow-up enforcement sampling of fruits, vegetables and cereals, national and co-ordinated programme
• Table D4: Details of residues exceeding non-harmonised MRLs including national MRLs, follow-up enforcement sampling of  fruits, vegetables and cereals, national and co-ordinated programme
• Table E:  Details of samples with multiple residues (>=2) in single samples surveillance and follow-up enforcement sampling of fruits, vegetables and cereals, national and co-ordinated programme
• Table F: Details of the Homogeneity Exercise
• Table G: Laboratory: Information about laboratories involved in the monitoring exercise

1. SUMMARY

In 2005, totally 753 samples of fruits, vegetables, cereals and processed products and 50 baby food products of domestic and non-domestic origin were analysed in the national and co-ordinated monitoring program. National or EU harmonised MRLs were exceeded in 24 samples (3,2 %). Pesticide residues above the reporting limits were found in 37 % of the surveillance products. Regarding products of plant origin, domestic production made up 27,5 % of the samples, 57 % of the samples came from other EU countries and 15,5 % were from the third countries.  Beans, carrots, cucumbers, mandarines, oranges, pears, potatoes, rice, spinach – totally 185 samples, were analysed in the of EU co-ordinated programme for the year 2005.  The level exceeding MRL was found out in 18 samples of fresh fruits and vegetables,  in 2 samples of coffee and baby food products and in 1 sample of wheat flour and rice.  Most of violative samples were from EU countries (13), 7 samples were of the Czech origin and 3 samples of third country.
 
68 different pesticide residues out of 147 sought in fruit and vegetables were found at least once during the monitoring programme. The most frequently found pesticide residues, in decreasing order of frequency (found/sought) are: O-phenylphenol, imazalil, carbendazim, thiabendazole, benomyl group, procymidone, chlorpyrifos, beta enodsulphan, chlorothalonil, cyprodinil. Out of 48 pesticide residues sought for, pirimiphos-methyl, imazalil, procymidone and metalaxyl were detected in cereals.

2. ORGANISATION OF MONITORING PROGRAMMES AND SAMPLING

Responsibilities

Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (CAFIA) is the competent authority for controls of pesticide residues in foodstuffs and provides the national and EU co-ordinated monitoring programmes in co-operation with the Ministry of Agriculture.

Design of Programmes

The sampling plan for pesticide residues monitoring is always drawn up for one calendar year. The plan is elaborated  by the Headquarters of CAFIA as internal provision and it is distributed to the CAFIA regional inspectorates which are responsible for its implementation. The plan is based on Commission Recommendation concerning a coordinated Community monitoring programme which sets the minimum number of samples for the Czech Republic. Within the monitoring of pesticide residues, the Czech Republic analyses approximately 800 samples per year. Within pesticide residue monitoring, especially commodities mainly presented in the consumer basket are collected. In selection of commodities for the monitoring a number of findings in the past (in the Czech Republic and other member states) is also taken into account. Fresh fruit and vegetables and baby food comprise the primary proportion of samples taken.

Sampling

Sampling is performed in accordance with sampling procedures referred to in Commission Directive No. 2002/63/EC that has been incorporated into the national regulation for sampling for determination of pesticides in and on fruit and vegetables.
 
Samples are taken by authorised and for this purpose trained employees of the CAFIA, i.e. inspectors of the CAFIA regional inspectorates. The main sampling points are importers, whosalers and retail shops for domestic and non-domestic products.

Enforcement

A ban on sale/distribution of inspected foodstuffs is imposed when exceeding the MRL or it is ordered to withdraw unsatisfactory foodstuffs from circulation. Furthermore, the person inspected is ordered to take such measures that minimise the risk of further occurrence of limit-exceeding findings. A fine is imposed on the inspected person within administrative procedure. When determining its amount the importance, manners, duration and consequences of illegal act are taken into consideration.

3. QUALITY ASSURANCE

Accreditation

All analyses were carried out in the laboratory of Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (CAFIA) in Prague.  Laboratory is accredited by Czech Accreditation Institute (CAI) according to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard for all methods used for monitoring and/or enforcement analysis.

Analytical methods

Pesticide residues reported by the laboratory in the year 2005 were analysed by 5 analytical methods which covered together 154 analytes (incl. metabolites) – 2 multi-residue methods (one MRM is based on ethyl acetate extraction, GPC clean-up and capillary gas chromatography (GC-ECD/NPD/MSD), second MRM is based on acetonitrile extraction followed by LC-MS/MS - liquid chromatography coupled either with ion-trap mass spectrometry or with triple quadrupole) and 3 single-methods (GC-MSD for dithiocarbamates, GC-ECD for inorganic bromine and LC-MS/MS for chlormequate).

Proficiency testing

During the year 2005 the laboratory took part in 3 proficiency tests focused on pesticide residues – in two FAPAS rounds and also in EU-PT 07.

EU Quality Control procedures

Most of requirements from the EU quality control guidelines (SANCO/10476/2003) have been fully implemented till now, however some requirements only partly. Improvement of QC procedures has been achieved since the year 2004 and the process will continue in light of new edition of guidelines also in the future.

Uncertainty

A concentration-dependent uncertainty concept based on the Horwitz equation is applied for uncertainty estimation. For calculation of expanded uncertainty (U), the RSDR obtained from the equation is multiplied by a factor of 1.4, which is derived from laboratory experiments, validation and QC data.  Expanded uncertainty is taken into account for evaluation of results.  Enforcement action is taken only if the result after subtraction of U is still above the MRL.

4. OTHER INFORMATION

Details of homogeneity exercise

Homogeneity experiments were realised on 19 samples – oranges (9 x), pears (6 x), cucumbers (3 x) and potatoes (1 x). The homogeneity factors are showed in the table below:

*    concentration in composite sample below reporting limit
**  no positive findings in single items

Risk assessment

All non-complying samples relevant for transmission via RASFF (Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed) were ceded to the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic which is responsible for health risk assessment in the Czech Republic.
 
One of the unsatisfactory samples was after evaluation sent to the RASFF system on 18.5.2005 and uploaded to CIRCA database by European Commission as Information notification with reference number 2005.BJD.