News

Russian pesticide requirements

A memorandum between the Russian Federation and the European Union on compliance and controls of these MRLs has entered into force as of 1 July 2008. Since then, all shipments to Russia have to be accompanied by a Pesticide Usage Statement indicating all pesticide treatments and the date of the last treatment. A template is available here. In case of mulitple infringements, the Russian authorities might request operators from certain countries and for certain products to present an additional document, the safety certificate. A template of that document is available here, as well as a list of accredited labs in the different EU Member States. Safety certificates are needed for produce supplied by the following countries.  Freshfel prepared detailed, user-friendly overviews for key crops:               + produced in the EU               + produced outside the EU

Entry into force new regime of increased official controls on imports

As of 25 January selected produce from third countries will have to be pre-notified and enter the EU through designated points of entry. They will all be submitted to documentary checks and a certain percentage will also have to undego physical checks (i.e. residue analysis for fresh produce). The list of products covered by the legislation will regularly be updated. An interpretative note is available here.

	Import tolerances and pesticide authorisations
	The European Commission has published a document to outline the changes to the system regarding fixing import tolerances and authorisations of plant protection products in the EU.  This document, primarily for WTO trade parners, is available to download here

Proposals

Under the European Commission's commitment to improve EU citizens' belief in food safety and quality, a comprehensive strategy has been introduced entitled From Farm to Fork. The basis of this strategy was laid down in January 2000 in a Commission White Paper on food safety encompassing all aspects of food safety and quality along the food chain. To achieve the objectives of this strategy, legislation in the food sector is constantly reviewed and revised. Moreover, to address the changing demands of consumers with respect to certain perishable products' quality, marketing standards at the EU, UNECE and Codex levels are occasionally updated. All revisions of legislation concerning the sector can be found below.

Click on the title of the documents below to download the original version of the legislative proposal.