The 2008 annual survey of pesticide residues in food and drink has confirmed that almost 99% of more than 4,000 samples tested either contained no residues or contained residues within maximum residue levels (MRLs).

Despite legislative changes during 2008 which significantly reduced MRLs for many products to a default level of 0.01mg/kg (one part per 100 million), the proportion of products exceeding MRLs was further reduced from 1.8% in 2007 to 1.2% in 2008.

Press release