Thursday 24 July 2008

Pesticides

The Food Standards Agency ensures that food safety is given priority during the authorisation and monitoring of pesticides.

The Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD) is responsible for UK policy on pesticides, so the Agency monitors the activities of the PSD in relation to food and makes sure that the expert committees that give advice about pesticides take full account of the public's concerns about the safety of food.

The Agency accepts the use of pesticides in the production of food as long as:

regulatory bodies follow a precautionary approach when approving the use of pesticides
independent scientific advice says that the safety of pesticides is within acceptable limits
acceptable levels can be set for residues in food
enough good-quality information is available to the regulatory bodies on which to base these decisions

We believe that consumers have a right to expect that any residues that occur in foods should:

not be harmful
be as low as practically possible, even if higher levels would still be safe

The Pesticides Safety Directorate

The Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD) is an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). It regulates all agricultural, horticultural and garden pesticides in Britain. Parallel regulatory arrangements are in place in Northern Ireland.

The PSD's main functions are to:

evaluate and process applications for approval of pesticide products for use in Britain
regulate pesticides in accordance with national and European guidelines
put in place and operate monitoring programmes for residues in food
actively monitor the marketing and use of pesticides, and take enforcement action where illegal activity arises, both directly and in co-operation with the Health and Safety Executive and local authority enforcement officers
provide policy advice to Ministers and take the lead on pesticide issues for Defra

The PSD also provides the secretariat for the independent Advisory Committee on Pesticides (ACP), that advises on the control of pesticides and the Pesticide Residues Committee (PRC), which oversees a programme to monitor the UK food and drink supply for pesticide residues.

The PSD works closely with the Food Standards Agency to protect consumer interests in relation to food safety and standards. Its aim is to ensure the safe use of pesticides for people and the environment. Part of this involves minimising potential impacts of pesticides by encouraging best practice and the development and introduction of alternative pest-control methods.

The PSD regulates pesticides used in situations including:

horticulture (such as greenhouses, parklands)
agriculture (such as food crops)
forestry (such as on trees)
home garden (such as houseplants, garden plants and lawns)
in or near water (such as river banks to control weeds)
food storage (such as grain silos)

The advertisement, sale, supply, storage and use of any pesticide is prohibited by law unless Ministers have approved the pesticide. Maximum residue levels (MRLs) in various crops and food products are specified in regulations. You can find out more about pesticide regulations on the PSD website.

More advice from our eatwell website

(External) Pesticides

Graphic version of this page

Pesticides

The Pesticides Safety Directorate

Related links

More advice from our eatwell website

See also