Introduction

1. Pesticide residues in fruit and vegetables from Africa - a Nordic ProjectKarlström U1, Siivinen K2,Hamborg Jensen B3,Petersen A3, Nielsen H4, Skretteberg LG5, Børge Holen5, Jansson A6, 1Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira, Mustialankatu 3, 00790 Helsinki, Finland, e-mail: ulla.karlstrom@evira.fi2Finnish Customs Laboratory, P.O. Box 53, 02151 Espoo, Finland, e-mail: kalevi.siivinen@tulli.fi3The National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Mørkhøj Bygade 19, 2860 Søborg, Denmark, e-mail:bhje@food.dtu.dk and annp@food.dtu.dk4Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, Division of Residues, Sondervang 4, DK-4100 Ringsted, Denmark; e-mail: HNIE@fvst.dk5Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research, 1432 Ås, Norway, e-mail: Lise-Gunn.Skretteberg@bioforsk.no and borge.holen@bioforsk.no6National Food Administration, Box 622, SE-751 26 Uppsala, Sweden, e-mail: anders.jansson@slv.se Introduction In order to cover more commodity/country-combinations, the Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark) are co-operating in monitoring. In 2008 the countries agreed to monitor samples from Africa. Together the Nordic countries analyzed a total of 623 samples from 18 different countries. Most of the samples came from South Africa (249), followed by Egypt (129), Morocco (92) and Kenya (88). In total 45 different commodities were analyzed, oranges (162) being the largest group, followed by beans with pods (80) and table grapes (71). In the analytical scope 220 to 345 pesticides and metabolites were covered. Results Most of the samples contained detectable residues (71.6 %). All together, 93 different substances were found. Imazalil, thiabendazole and chlorpyrifos were the three most frequently detected pesticides and mainly found in citrus fruit. MRLs (national and EU) were exceeded in 5.5 % of the samples. Totally 34 samples had residues above the MRLs. Products exceeding MRLs. Risk assessment by using the EFSA model PRIMo, Risk assessment Totally 34 samples had residues above the MRLs. The acute intake was calculated for those pesticides which an acute reference dose (ARfD) has sbeen et either by EFSA, EU or JMPR. The calculations were done using the EFSA PRIMo model (version 2). None of the samples exceeded the ARfD. However, in peppers the acute intake resulted in very high exceedance (976 %) when ARfD for ethion was set to ADI (0,002 mg/kg bw/day) and variability factor 7 was used. ARfD value was not available as ethion is not included in Annex I to Directive 91/414/EEC. In practice, this type of exceedances would be considered dangerous to consumers and products would be withdrawn from the market. Tullilaboratorio