Japan Revises the Residue Limits of Nine Pesticides and Veterinary Drugs in Food

On February 25, 2022, Japan MHLW released the amendment to Food and Food Additive Specification Standard, which mainly revised the residue limits of nine pesticides and veterinary drugs. They are Albendazol, Captan, Cyazofamid, Cypermethrin, Zeranol, Pyriofenone, Fluoxastrobin, Procymidone, Mandestrobin. The amendment came into effect immediately after the promulgation.

The main changes are shown in the table below.

Pesticide and veterinary drug	Food	After (ppm)	Before (ppm)
Albendazol	Fish and shellfish (limited to Perciformes fish)	0.03	0.01
Captan	Watermelon (including pericarp)	3	2
	Melon (including pericarp)	20	15
	Okra	0.05	0.01
	Japanese pear, European pear	15	10
	Quince	9	10
	Walnut	0.5	0.01
Cyazofamid	Watercress	15	10
	Green onion (including leek)	6	2
	Allium tuberosum	6	0.01
	Tree onion	6	5
	Other liliaceae vegetables	10	3
	...
Cypermethrin	Kale	6	1.0
	Tea	15	20
	Hops	0.01	20
	Milk	0.1	0.05
	...
Zeranol	Animal muscles/fat belonging to other terrestrial mammals	0.002	0.02
Zeranol	The liver of animals belonging to other terrestrial mammals, Cow kidney, Kidney of animals belonging to other terrestrial mammals, Edible parts of cattle, Edible parts of animals belonging to other terrestrial mammals	0.01	0.02
Pyriofenone	Other solanaceae vegetables	5	0.01
	Pumpkin (including squash)	0 . 6	0 . 7
	Oriental pickling melon	0 . 2	0.01
	Watermelon	/	0 . 0 5
	Watermelon (including pericarp)	0 . 3	/
	Melon	0 . 0 7	0 . 2
	Oriental melon (including pericarp)	0.2	0.01
	Cranberry	0 . 5	0.01
	Grape	4	3
	Oyster	1	0.7
	kiwi (including pericarp)	2	0.01
	Guava	0.01	2
Fluoxastrobin	Barley	0.4	0.01
	Corn, Pig muscles	0.02	0.01
	Other cereal,Grape	2	0.01
	Liver/kidney/ edible parts of pigs	0.06	0.01
	Apple	1	0.01
	Japanese pear, European pear	0.6	0.01
	Brassica rapa	0.7	0.01
	Cow muscle, Soy bean	0.05	0.01
	Pig fat, Milk	0.03	0.01
	Cow fat	0.1	0.01
	Wheat, Adzuki bean, Pea, Vicia faba, Other legumes, Liver/kidney/ edible parts of cows	0.2	0.01
Procymidone	Soy bean, Eggplant	3	2
	Adzuki bean	5	3
	Tomato	4	3
	Bell pepper	10	5
	The fruit of amanatsu	2	0.01
	Lemon, Orange (including navel orange), Grapefruit, Lime, Other citrus fruits	5	0.01
	Other spice	30	25
	...
Mandestrobin	Cauliflower, Broccoli	7	0.01
	Glebionis coronaria	90	50
	Onion	0.05	0.01
	Bell pepper	6	0.01
	Other solanaceae vegetables	10	0.01
	Spinach	0.3	0.01
	Strawberry	6	3
	...
Feel free to contact ChemLinked if you need translation service for the complete limit changes.

It is noteworthy that the requirements for MRLs of hops in cypermethrin, and guava in pyriofenone greatly tightened. However, some pesticides are subject to higher residue limits (which means the requirements are less strict), such as the mandestrobin in cauliflower, broccoli and other solanaceae vegetables.

In addition, provisions on the MRLs of seven pesticides in the following foods have a one-year transition period. During the period, the previous provisions are still applicable.

Pesticide	Food
Captan	Quince
Cyazofamid	Watermelon, Watermelon (including pericarp), Melon, Melon (including pericarp), Oriental melon, Oriental melon (including pericarp), Orange, Oranges (including outer pericarp), Peach, Peach (including pericarp and seeds)
Cypermethrin	Rice (brown rice), Soba, Adzuki bean, Pea, Potato, taro, Dioscorea japonica (Dioscorea polystachya), Konjac, Other potatoes, Saccharum officinarum, Turnip root, Turnip leaf, Horseradish, Watercress, Napa cabbage, Burdock, Tragopogon, Artichoke, Chicory, Endive, Glebionis coronaria, Onion...
Zeranol	Animal muscles/fat/liver/kidney belonging to other terrestrial mammals, Edible parts of cattle, Edible parts of animals belonging to other terrestrial mammals
Pyriofenone	Pumpkin (including squash), Watermelon, Watermelon (including pericarp),Melon, and Guava
Procymidone	Watermelon, Watermelon (including pericarp),Melon, Melon (including pericarp), Orange, Oranges (including outer pericarp), Loquat, loquat (excluding peduncle,including pericarp and seeds), Peach, Peach (including pericarp and seeds), kiwi, kiwi (including pericarp)
Mandestrobin	Watermelon, Watermelon (including pericarp),Melon, Melon (including pericarp), Peach, Peach (including pericarp and seeds)