该报告包含 2013 年对 80,000 多个样本进行的测试结果，表明总体而言，这些食品中的 97.4% 处于欧盟允许的农药最大残留限量 (MRL) 范围内。对于涵盖 12 种食品的欧盟协调计划，结果显示更高的合规性：99.1%。 MRLs 是一个严格的交易标准，根据该标准，截止点设置在可接受的安全水平内。
“This is more good news for Europe’s consumers, farmers, retailers, agricultural advisers, authorities and the crop protection industry,” said Jean-Charles Bocquet, director general of the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA). “The report from EFSA confirms that food in Europe is safe. These results once again should foster consumers’ trust in the food they buy and in the whole European supply chain.”
从欧盟以外国家进口的食品 (5.7%) 比来自欧盟和欧洲经济区的样品 (1.4%) 发现的农药残留超过最大残留限量的情况更多。欧洲食品安全局的报告得出结论，2013 年在食品中发现的残留物不太可能对消费者的健康产生长期影响。
“Year after year we welcome these results as a testament to the joint effort made by the farmers and industry in sharing and implementing best practices. They demonstrate both the current high-level skill of pesticide users and the high level of food safety that we continue to see in Europe,” Bocquet said.
“As an industry we are always working to improve on and learn from these results. That’s why we have set up a dedicated project on pesticide residue management that focuses on training and advisory programs. These help reduce residues by promoting Integrated Pest Management principles and good agricultural practices in the EU and also outside of the EU — for example, in Turkey.”