Abstract National Food Monitoring Report 2004

National Food Monitoring is a system of repeated representative measurements and evaluations of levels of undesirable substances, such as plant protection products, heavy metals and other contaminants, in and on food. As in 2003, the 2004 monitoring scheme ran on two tracks, one being the investigation of foods of a defined market basket with the aim to monitor the situation of contamination under representative conditions of sampling (market basket monitoring), the other consisting of a number of single projects looking into specific questions relating to certain substances or foods (monitoring projects). 

A total of 4971 samples of domestic and foreign origin were analysed for residues of plant protection products, elements (heavy metals), nitrate, organic contaminants, and mycotoxins in 2004. Some foods of plant origin showed measurable residues of plant protection products relatively frequently. Sometimes, more than ten per cent of samples carried residues above respective maximum residue levels. Sweet peppers, head lettuce, rucola, apples and some bush berries were conspicuous in this respect. Rucola was also found to carry high nitrate levels. Some of the foods analysed for mycotoxins showed a high rate of positive findings, sometimes above maximum permissible levels. This underlined the need to further monitor contamination with mycotoxins and introduce measures suitable to reduce it. Examination of fish from South East Asia for mercury, which was the subject of one of the monitoring projects, has confirmed earlier findings showing that older fish at the end of the aquatic food chain carry high levels of this heavy metal.   

Survey of foods subject to the 2004 monitoring scheme

Market basket

Sausages – scalding sausages –  Cereals – rye / oat grains – Shell fruit / oil seed – peanuts - walnuts - hazelnuts -  almonds – Leafy vegetables – head lettuce – lamb’s lettuce – iceberg lettuce - rucola – red cabbage – leek – Fruiting vegetables – tomato – Berry fruit – strawberries – Pome fruit - apple - Exotic fruit - pineapple – Fruit juices – orange juice

Projects

Residues of plant protection products in bush berries - Residues of plant protection products in sweet peppers - Polycyclic musk compounds in trouts - Ochratoxin A in various kinds of food – Mycotoxins in breakfast cereals - Organotin compounds and heavy metals in mussels - PAHs and BTEX aromatics in fish products - Mercury levels in fish from South East Asia - Residues and contaminants in herring - 3-MCPD in basic foodstuffs, centering on bread - Acrylamide in various foodstuffs