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Food Focus August 2008

National Chemical Residue Programme 2006/2007

NZFSA operates a risk-based National Chemical Residue Programme that randomly samples animal products at the point of harvest. Each year Food Focus publishes the levels found in certain products

The National Chemical Residue Programme (NRP) includes all classes and species of cattle, sheep, deer, pigs, goats, horses, wild animals, broilers, ostrich and emu, honey and farmed salmon. The Dairy National Chemical Contaminants Programme (NCCP) monitors raw milk and colostrum at the farm prior to consolidation and dilution that occurs through transportation and processing.

Both programmes analyse a wide range of contaminants and agricultural compounds, including antibacterial and antibiotic substances, banned or restricted substances, anthelmintics, synthetic pyrethroids and carbamates, organochlorines and organo-phosphates, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, vertebrate poisons, and heavy metals.

Regulatory action is required to be taken on any products that exceed a maximum residue level (see page 21 for more about MRLs). One sample exceeded its set MRL. This was a beef liver sample with 0.055mg/kg abamectin. The New Zealand MRL is 0.015mg/kg and the farmer supplier was placed on surveillance testing.

Monitoring programme results for 2006/2007

(a) The overall number of sample-compound combinations is not precise as some procedures can test for many different compounds on the one sample. Sometimes these compounds are from one compound class, eg, synthetic pyrethroids, or from one activity class, eg, antibiotics. More compounds of an activity class can be often be detected than are specified for reporting.