The traces pesticides leave in treated products are called "residues".
A maximum residue level (MRL) is the highest level of a pesticide residue that is legally tolerated in or on food or feed when pesticides are applied correctly (Good Agricultural Practice).
Key points
- The amounts of residues found in food must be safe for consumers and must be as low as possible.
- The European Commission fixes MRLs for all food and animal feed
- The MRLs for all crops and all pesticides can be found in the MRL database on the Commission website.