Fruit and vegetables supplied to schools in the school year 2008-09 met legal standards on pesticide residue levels, according to the Pesticides Residue Committee (PRC).

The commitee today published findings from the department of health’s School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme (SFVS) for spring 2009. The second report for the school year 2008-09 found that the fruit and vegetables supplied to schools met legal standards with regard to pesticide residue levels and that the presence of residues would be unlikely to have any effect on those who ate the food. The report contained the results for apples, bananas, carrots, pears and soft citrus.

Residues found were within European legal levels and the committee has looked carefully at the results and is satisfied in all cases that the presence of the residues is unlikely to have an effect on health.

Dr Ian Brown, chairman of the PRC, said: “These results should provide reassurance that the food supplied to schools as part of this scheme continues to be safe. I can understand that some people have concerns about pesticide residues in their food, but as a doctor I cannot over-emphasise the importance of continuing to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. Scientific evidence shows that the health benefits for children and young people far outweigh any concerns about pesticide residues.”

The PRC is an independent body that advises the government, the Food Standards Agency and the Chemicals Regulation Directorate (CRD). Since January 2005, the CRD has been contracted by the department of health to undertake pesticide residue monitoring of produce supplied under the SFVS.

The PRC has also published its 2008 annual report, with key findings showing that residues found this year are unlikely to affect people’s health, even vulnerable groups such as older people and children.

Brown said: “The results of the 2008 monitoring programme show we did not detect any pesticide residues in 53.8 per cent of the food we sampled and 1.2 per cent contained residues above the permitted maximum levels. We carried out full risk assessments of these cases, which included looking at the most vulnerable people such as children and the elderly. This year, as in all recent years, nearly all the residues we found were not likely to affect people’s health. However, we must follow up any problems we identify to maintain the high standards of protection we currently have.”

He added: “Since 2002 there has been a significant development in the scope of the testing programme. We can now look for more pesticides at much lower levels. Consequently, we have found more residues, but not higher levels of non-compliance. The testing programme demonstrates that the vast majority of food available to UK consumers is compliant with pesticides legislation and is not likely to pose a risk to consumer health.”

The committee has also published findings from its first quarterly report in 2009, which found that the majority of foods had no detectable residues and those that did contain pesticides were not likely to be harmful to health. Tests found that 392 out of 570 samples of 16 different foods tested had no detectable residues. Also, 164 samples contained levels below the maximum residue level.

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