FOOD AND HEALTH ESSENTIALS

Australia sets new MRLs for 19 agricultural and veterinary chemicals

Food Standards Australia New Zealand has established formal minimum residue limits (MRLs) for 19 separate agricultural and veterinary (AgVet) chemicals.

Published earlier this year in the Federal Register of Legislation for the Commonwealth, the new MRLs are intended to reduce the rejection of foods with extremely low levels of chemicals for which MRLs have not been specifically identified. This action modifies the prior “zero tolerance” approach, under which foods with even trace amounts of unlisted AgVet chemicals would be deemed unsafe and therefore banned from the market.

The new MRLs are applicable to “all other food, except animal food commodities,” and are now in effect.

A list of the specific AgVet chemicals addressed by this change, along with their MRLs, is available here.