The Pesticide Residues Committee conducts annual programmes to monitor pesticide residues in food. The Committee last sampled beef imported from Brazil in 2004 and found no residues of substances sought.
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) tests imported foods from third countries for residues of veterinary medicines and substances not permitted for use in the EU.
On the recommendation of the independent Veterinary Residues Committee (VRC), which advises the VMD and the Food Standards Agency on residues surveillance, the programme has focused on looking for banned substances in recent years. In 2003 and 2004, a total of 599 samples of imported beef were tested for residues of trenbolone and zeranol (hormonally active substances used for growth promotion), avermectins and ß-agonists. This included 202 samples from Brazil. No residues of these hormonal substances were detected in any of the samples.
In the light of these results, the VRC recommended that beef should be temporarily removed from the imports surveillance programme to focus more resources on areas where intelligence suggested that problems were emerging. The VRC recommended that beef should be restored to the imports surveillance programme in 2007, and 300 samples will be tested for zeranol, trenbolone, and avermectins.
All these test results have been published on the VMD and VRC websites.