Food consumed in the EU continues to be largely free of pesticide residues or to contain residues that fall within legal limits, finds EFSA.

Its latest monitoring report reveals that more than 97% of food samples collected across the EU in 2015 were within legal limits, with just over 53% free of quantifiable residues. The figures are in line with those recorded in 2014.

As part of its annual report, EFSA analyses the results of the EU coordinated control programme (EUCP), under which reporting countries analyse samples from the same ‘basket’ of food items. For 2015 the products were aubergines, bananas, broccoli, virgin olive oil, orange juice, peas, sweet peppers, table grapes, wheat, butter and eggs.

The highest exceedance rate recorded was for broccoli (3.4% of samples), followed by table grapes (1.7%). Rare exceedances were found for olive oil, orange juice and chicken eggs. No exceedances were recorded for butter.

EFSA also performed a dietary risk assessment based on the EUCP. For both short (acute) and long term (chronic) exposure, the authority concluded that the risk to consumers was low.

The same products were also analysed in 2012; the overall exceedance rate has fallen slightly from 0.9% to 0.8% in 2015.

In its report EFSA makes a number of recommendations for increasing the efficiency of the EU coordinated and national control programmes.