Japan Revise the Maximum Residue Limit of Pesticides and Veterinary Drugs in Food

As revealed on Sep. 21, 2018, Japan MHLW announced its amendment of requirements regarding pesticide and veterinary drug residue in “Food and food additive quality specification”, which mainly involves the following 3 aspects.

MRL revision

The maximum residue limit (MRL) of orbifloxacin, kanamycin, fludioxonil and methylprednisolone were revised, and the MRL for triflumezopyrim was newly included. Generally speaking, the MRLs of pesticides and veterinary drug are much more stringent than previous ones.

Item	Application scope	Maximum residue limit
Item	Application scope	Prior to revision (ppm)	After revision (ppm)
Veterinary drug
Orbifloxacin	beef	0.09	0.02
	beef fat	0.6	0.02
	Bovine liver	0.2	0.02
	Bovine kidney	0.4	0.02
	Edible parts of bovine	0.4	0.02
	Milk	0.2	0.02
Kanamycin (only partial scopes concerning revision are listed in the right)	Bovine liver	1	0.04
	Bovine kidney	13	0.04
	Edible parts of bovine	13	0.04
	Chicken	0.2	0．5
Methylprednisolone (only partial scopes concerning revision are listed in the right)	beef		0.01
	beef fat		0.01
Pesticides
Fludioxonil	Rice	0.02	0.05
Fludioxonil	Potato	6	0.02
Newly included
Triflumezopyrim	Rice	0.01

These revisions came into effect after the date of promulgation, but those items highlighted in red subject to a grace period until Mar.21, 2019.

Scope expansion

The application scope of fludioxonil has been expanded when it is used for mold prevention

expanded scope	MRL g/kg
butyrospermum parkii	0.005
Pineapple	0.02
papaya	0.005
Potato	0.006
Mango	0.005

MRL testing

Now the cocoa bean sample used for residue testing shall be peeled.