Potatoes: UK Trade with EU

(asked on 11th March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 11 March to Question 164621 on Potatoes: UK Trade with EU, for what reasons a maximum residue level applies to EU imports but not to potatoes produced in England.


Answered by
Victoria Prentis Portrait
Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
This question was answered on 16th March 2021

At the end of the EU Exit Transition Period, all extant EU maximum residue levels (MRLs) were carried over into the pesticides regulatory regime in place in Great Britain. These have not changed since and there is currently no difference between the EU and GB MRL for potatoes for 1,4-dimethylnaphthalene (1,4-DMN). The 1,4-DMN MRL therefore applies to both domestic produce and produce imported from the EU. The key difference is in which pesticides are authorised for use in each country.

As of 1 January 2021, there is an autonomous pesticides regime in Great Britain. This means that the UK Government and the devolved administrations take our own decisions about which pesticides to authorise for use, based on scientific assessment of the risks. We may therefore sometimes take different decisions to countries in the EU or elsewhere. Last year, our regulator, the Health and Safety Executive, passed concerns arising from their risk assessment for 1,4-DMN to the EU for them to take into account.

In the meantime, emergency authorisations have been granted by all four UK administrations allowing limited and controlled use of a 1,4-DMN product.

We aim to establish a formal MRL review programme in the next few years and we are able to review MRLs when necessary, for example, to protect public health.

Reticulating Splines