Potatoes: Storage

(asked on 13th April 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, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of licensing DMN for use in potato storage.


Answered by
Victoria Prentis Portrait
Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
This question was answered on 21st April 2021

Before a pesticide can be used, its active substance must be approved and the pesticide itself must be authorised. Decisions on approval and authorisation are based on an assessment of the risks posed to people and to the environment. Such decisions are devolved and so are taken by the relevant government or by the Health and Safety Executive on its behalf.

The active substance 1,4-dimethylnaphthalene (1,4-DMN) is approved but at present there is no authorised product. The UK Government and the Devolved Administrations have granted an emergency authorisation allowing the limited and controlled use until 31 May 2021 of a 1,4-DMN product to prevent sprouting of harvested potatoes. This emergency authorisation is granted in recognition of the need for sprout suppression and the lack, in certain circumstances, of alternative means of control.

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