Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
azodicarbonamide use in food products was described by Mulder and Van
Rhijn [84].
8.
L
EGISLATION AND
A
NALYTICAL
C
ONTROL
EU legislation on pharmacologically active substances and veterinary
medicinal products consists of
Directives
,
Regulations
and
Decisions
.
The Standing Committee for the Food Chain and Animal Health is the
committee, made up of representatives from Member States and chaired by the
Commission, which deals with food safety. The Standing Committee on
Veterinary Medicinal Products deals with proposals related to veterinary
medicinal products [85].
The EU has put in place a series of measures to protect the health of the
consumer and to ensure that food of animal origin produced within the EU and
produced in third countries to be exported into the EU is safe. Licensed
veterinary medicines are evaluated by the European Medicines Agency. Based
on their evaluation, a Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) is calculated for each
medicine in the tissues of each animal species in which the product may be
used. Large safety margins are built into the calculation of MRLs [56]. This
means that an infringing concentration (> MRL) in tissue does not necessarily
pose a risk to human health. It does, however, mean that the product is not
suitable for the purposes of international trade. All MRLs are now
alphabetically listed in the Comission Regulation nº 37/2010 [86] in only one
Annex divided in two tables for allowed and prohibited use of compounds in
food-producing animals. The nitrofurans are included in the group of
prohibited compounds [86].
The EU has established a minimum required performance limit (MRPL)
of 1 μg kg
-1
, for nitrofuran metabolites for edible tissues of animal origin
(Commission Decision 2003/181/EC of 13 March 2003). The illegal use of
nitrofurans is controlled by official inspections (National Plans of Residues
Control) following the recommendations specified by Council Directive
96/23/EC [18]. According to this document, the EU Member States are
required to set up monitoring plans and sampling procedures for given
substances in live animals and their respective food products [15].
The development of methods for the detection of nitrofuran metabolites, at
low concentrations has caused severe difficulties for a number of third
countries, wishing to export food into Europe. Their controls on nitrofurans
(where they existed) were exclusively based on the detection of nitrofuran
