NEW DELHI: Over 86,000 food commodities were collected and analysed for pesticide residues, out of which 2.8 percent samples were found exceeding Maximum Residue Limits (MRL) as notified by FSSAI during 2022-25, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Friday.
In a written reply, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Prataprao Jadhav, said that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) notifies the MRLs of pesticides on food commodities under the Food Safety and Standards (Contaminants, Toxins and Residues) Regulation, 2011 after performing risk assessment.
He said the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) funded a project “Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at National Level” (MPRNL) to monitor the pesticide residues in various food commodities. Under the MPRNL project, samples of food commodities like vegetables, fruits, spices, cereals, pulses, herbs, fish/marine, meat and egg, tea and milk are collected from different parts of the country by 35 participating laboratories. These are then analysed by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accredited testing laboratories for possible presence of pesticide residues.
“During 2022-25, a total of 86,401 samples of various food commodities were collected and analysed for pesticide residues, out of which 2.8% samples were found exceeding MRL as notified by FSSAI,” he added.
He also said that FSSAI through its regional offices and state/UT food safety authorities, undertakes regular surveillance, monitoring, inspection, random sampling of food products, and targeted enforcement drives especially during festive or peak demand seasons, to ensure compliance with Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006 Rules & Regulations made thereunder.
FSSAI, under the National Annual Surveillance Plan (NASP) has been conducting nationwide monthly surveillance drives on various food commodities to assess the compliance of food commodities with the applicable provisions of FSS Regulations.
If any non-compliances are detected during surveillance, enforcement sampling is subsequently carried out on the non-compliant samples.
In cases where the enforcement samples are found non-conforming, regulatory actions are initiated against the defaulting Food Business Operators (FBOs) as per the provisions of the FSS Act 2006, Rules and Regulations made thereunder, the minister said.