Over 86,000 food commodities analysed for pesticide residues in 2022-25, 2.8% found exceeding limits
In a written reply, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Prataprao Jadhav, said that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) notifies the MRLs of pesticides on food commodities under the Food Safety and Standards (Contaminants, Toxins and Residues) Regulation, 2011 after performing risk assessment.
He said the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) funded a project 'Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at National Level' (MPRNL) to monitor the pesticide residues in various food commodities. Under the MPRNL project, samples of food commodities like vegetables, fruits, spices, cereals, pulses, herbs, fish/marine, meat and egg, tea and milk are collected from different parts of the country by 35 participating laboratories. These are then analysed by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accredited testing laboratories for possible presence of pesticide residues.
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