57th committee meeting scrutinizes pesticides for residue safety and receives updates on database modernization

During the one-week session, CCPR considered several compounds evaluated at the 2025 JMPR Meeting and advanced maximum residue limits (MRLs) for adoption as new or revised Codex maximum residue limits (CXLs) at the next Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The Committee also discussed the availability and timely submission of data for some compounds, as well as the retention of related CXLs under the 4-year rule or, where justified by sponsor data commitments, their extension pending the outcome of the JMPR periodic review. Such extensions were granted as a risk-management decision because an additional 4-year cycle cannot be applied. For example, the CXLs for clethodim were retained pending the JMPR periodic review, despite the expiry of the 4-year period, because sponsor support had been identified.

CCPR also agreed to make consequential amendments to the CXLs for “muscle” commodities established before 2025 by appending a note to support their consistent interpretation and implementation by competent authorities. The Committee further agreed to retain the suffix “F” on CXLs for milks for fat-soluble pesticides to clarify that milk fat should be analyzed. This approach will remain in place until JMPR re-evaluates these compounds under the periodic review and establishes revised CXLs for milks and new CXLs for milk fats in line with the CCPR56 decision in 2025 to allocate a note to milk fat CXLs when both milk and milk fat CXLs are established for fat-soluble pesticides, thereby ensuring their consistent interpretation and application.

CCPR further agreed to continue working on applying CXLs for the subgroup of peppers to okra, martynia, and roselle, as the data needed for JMPR to determine whether okra should remain in the subgroup, be moved to another group in the Classification, or be treated separately are not yet available.

In addition, CCPR agreed to consequential amendments to the Classification of foods and animal feeds (CXA 4-1989) and the related Principles and guidance on the selection of representative commodities for the extrapolation of MRLs to commodity groups (CXG 84-2012) by adding commodities such as dried tomato pomace and field seed pennycress, to enable the establishment of single or group CXLs for adoption at the next Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

A separate agenda item addressed unsupported compounds without public health concerns, scheduled for periodic review. Carbaryl, methyl bromide, and flumethrin were removed from this group because they were no longer considered unsupported compounds, as data commitments supporting their periodic review have been identified. Their CXLs and proposed MRLs were retained pending the outcome of the JMPR periodic review, including consideration of a concern form submitted to CCPR for carbaryl. Flumethrin and ethoxyquin remained in the group for further discussion, while other compounds eligible for periodic review, without public health concerns and lacking identified sponsor support, were added for follow-up in accordance with the revised Management of unsupported compounds without public health concerns scheduled for periodic review, which will be published as an information document on the Codex website.

Furthermore, CCPR endorsed the priority list of pesticides for evaluation at the 2027 JMPR Meeting, welcomed an update on the ongoing harmonization of MRLs for compounds used as both veterinary drugs and pesticides, and noted preparations for the virtual joint session of CCPR and the Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs (CCRVDF) scheduled for early 2027 to consider single harmonized MRLs for such compounds.

The Codex Secretariat updated CCPR on the project to map all CXLs in the Codex pesticide residues database and align them with the revised crop grouping in the Classification. A related topic was the side event on the new online database on pesticide residues in food and feed, which drew significant attention and offered an opportunity to update Members and Observers on progress in modernizing the database.

Data availability and timely submission remained a key concern and were again highlighted as a major barrier to effective MRL setting.