(1)

Directives 86/362/EEC and 90/642/EEC provide that the Commission should progressively work towards a system which would permit the estimation of dietary exposure to pesticides. To make realistic estimations possible, data on the monitoring of pesticide residues should be available in a number of food products which constitute major components of the European diet. It is generally recognised that major components of the European diet are constituted by some 20 to 30 food products. In view of the resources available at national level for pesticide residue monitoring, Member States are only able to analyse samples of eight products each year within a coordinated monitoring programme. Pesticide uses show changes within the timescale of three-year cycles. Each pesticide should thus generally be monitored in 20 to 30 food products over a series of three-year cycles.

(2)

Residues of the pesticides covered by this Recommendation should be monitored in 2006, as this will allow using these data for the estimation of actual dietary exposure to them.

(3)

A systematic statistical approach to numbers of samples to be taken in each coordinated monitoring exercise is necessary. Such an approach has been set out by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (3). On the basis of a binomial probability distribution, it can be calculated that examination of 613 samples allows with a certainty of more than 99 %, the detection of a sample containing pesticide residues above the limit of determination (LOD), provided that less than 1 % of products of plant origin contain residues above that limit. Collection of these samples should be apportioned between Member States on the basis of population and consumer numbers, with a minimum of 12 samples per product and per year.

(4)

Guidelines concerning ‘Quality Control Procedures for Pesticide Residue Analysis’ are published on the Commission website (4). It is agreed that these guidelines should be applied as far as possible by the analytical laboratories of the Member States and should be reviewed continuously in the light of experience gained in the monitoring programmes.

(5)

Commission Directive 2002/63/EC establishes Community methods of sampling for the official control of pesticide residues in and on products of plant and animal origin and repealing Directive 79/700/EEC (5). The sampling methods and procedures laid down in this Directive incorporate those recommended by the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

(6)

Directives 86/362/EEC and 90/642/EEC require Member States to specify the criteria applied in drawing up their national inspection programmes. Such information should include the criteria applied in determining the numbers of samples to be taken and analyses to be carried out and the reporting levels applied, the criteria by which the reporting levels have been fixed and details of accreditation under the Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004, animal health and animal welfare rules on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law (6). The number and type of infringements and the action taken should also be indicated.

(7)

Maximum residue levels for baby food have been established in accordance with Article 6 of Commission Directive 91/321/EEC of 14 May 1991 on infant formulae and follow-on formulae (7) and Article 6 of Commission Directive 96/5/EC, Euratom of 16 February 1996 on processed cereal-based foods and baby foods for infants and young children (8).

(8)

Information on the results of monitoring programmes is particularly appropriate for treatment, storage and transmission by electronic/informatics methods. Formats have been developed for supply of data by e-mail from the Member States. Member States should therefore be able to send their reports to the Commission in the standard format. The further development of such a standard format is most effectively undertaken by the development of guidelines by the Commission.

(9)

The measures provided for in this recommendation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health,