Pesticides authorised for use in cereals

When prioritising work on method development, it is relevant to consider which pesticides are authorised for use on cereal commodities since residues of these pesticides can be expected. A complete list of all authorised uses in the different MS would be a helpful tool. However, such a list is not available. Lists of which pesticides are authorised for use in the MS are available on the EU CIRCA Database. Unfortunately, this list does not include information on which crops the pesticides are authorised for and it is therefore not possible to evaluate which pesticides are authorised for which types of cereals in which MS. Additionally, no information is given on how frequently the pesticides are actually used on cereals.

Information on authorisations is available; however, this information is non-exclusive since it only includes information about some MS or for only some of the pesticides available on the European market.

As part of a project financed by the Danish EPA the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark has compiled lists of pesticides authorised for use in wheat and four other commodities in the different northern and central EU MS. The report was published in Danish by the Danish EPA in 2007 (9) . Table 2 4 contains a list of pesticides authorised for use in wheat in 1) more than 14 MS and 2) more than nine but less than 14 MS of the total 17 MS evaluated. Data on the frequency or amounts of the pesticides used are not available.

From Table 2 4 it can be seen that triazoles are a commonly authorised fungicide in the northern and central European MS. For herbicides, the sulfonyl urea type are widely represented. The list of authorised insecticides varies from MS to MS which results in only one insecticide authorised in 14 or more of the 17 MS. The most frequently authorised type of insecticide was the pyrethroids. In the 17 MS only seven different plant growth regulators were authorised for use on wheat. The plant growth regulators authorised in most MS were chlormequat, trinexapac and ethephon. These plant growth regulators were authorised for use on wheat in 15, 14 and 12 of the 17 MS, respectively. Only two types of insecticides are authorised for use in wheat in France. These are not represented by the active substances authorised for use in more than nine other MS.

In connection with the work performed by EFSA on setting TMRLs, information on authorised uses of 77 pending substances from 20 MS has been collected. Authorised uses have been collected for e.g. wheat (including spelt and triticale), oat, rye, rice, maize and barley. The collected data include information on authorised uses from 13 northern European MS and seven southern European MS. The complete lists are available on the CIRCA database (10).

Table 2 5 and Table 2-6 list the top three most commonly authorised pesticides for each of the cereal types; wheat, oat, rye, rice, maize and barley. In many cases more than one pesticide is authorised in equally many MS. More than one pesticide can therefore occur in
Table 2 5, as e.g. the second most often authorised pesticide. The number of MS in which the top three pesticides are authorised is presented in brackets in the tables.

* Including Austria, Belgium, Czech republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovak Republic, Sweden, The Netherlands and United Kingdom.

*Only few pesticides authorised for use in UK. No pesticides are authorised for use in the other northern member states.

Table 2 5 and Table 2-6 show that the triazole type pesticides are often authorised for use on cereals. This is especially true for wheat, oat, rye and barley. Many of the pesticides are authorised for use both in northern and southern EU. Even though a pesticide is authorised for use, this does not necessarily mean that residues will be found.

*Including Greece, France, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain.

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Published 06-07-2010, 14:13:12