Revision of the Standards and Specifications for Foods and Food Additives under the Food Sanitation Act (revision of agricultural chemical residue standards)

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan (MHLW) intends to withdraw all the maximum residue limits (MRLs) for the following five agricultural chemicals due to lack of data. The five agricultural chemicals are not registered or approved in Japan, and/or do not have any Codex MRLs. Some countries set MRLs for some of these chemicals, but the MHLW could not confirm sufficient data for risk assessment and MRL setting. Those MRLs were provisionally set over ten years ago, and it is difficult to maintain those MRLs anymore unless sufficient data for risk assessment and MRL setting are provided. Therefore the MHLW has decided to delete all the MRLs for the five substances.Those substances have not been detected in any imported foods in Japan for the last five years according to monitoring data on agricultural chemicals residue conducted by the MHLW. Japan is of the view that the deletion of the MRLs is unlikely to have negative impact on the current international trade.Pesticide: Fentin, Flucarbazone sodium, Hydramethylnon, Propazine.Veterinary drug: Oleandomycin.