The Food Safety Authority has service contracts with my Department, the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, the Marine Institute, the Health Service Executive and 32 Local Authorities. These service contracts include the testing of various foodstuffs for a range of chemical residues, including pesticides, residues of animal remedies, marine bio-toxins and organic and inorganic contaminants.
The national chemical residue testing programmes include the annual National Residue Monitoring Programme for residues of animal remedies and the annual National Pesticide Monitoring Programme, for pesticide residues in various foods of animal and non-animal origin. FSAI also carries out independent surveys for specific chemical residues including dioxins, furans and PCBs. In all, over 30,000 foodstuffs will be inspected for the presence of chemical residues in 2006.
The foodstuffs inspected under the chemical residue testing programmes include mushrooms and other agricultural and horticultural produce. Residues analysed in mushrooms include pesticides, under the National Pesticide Monitoring Programme. The service contract with the Department of Agriculture and Food specifically encompasses the work carried by the Departments' Pesticide Control Service on the implementation of the National Pesticide Monitoring Programme.
This annual monitoring programme is risk based and is drawn up by the Pesticide Control Service in consultation with the FSAI. The types of factors that are taken into account each year in determining the programme include the incidences of residue breaches the previous year, the dietary importance of particular foods, the residue history of the pesticide and the analytical capacity of the laboratory. The programme for 2006 includes analysis of 1350 samples for pesticide residues with each sample analysed for up to 150 different pesticides. On the basis of the criteria outlined above 10 mushroom samples are to be tested in 2006 for 150 different pesticide residues or 1500 different analyses. Between 1994 and 2006 no illegal pesticide residues have been found in mushrooms sampled from the Irish market. 183 samples of mushrooms have been analysed for pesticide residues since 2000 and the results of these yearly monitoring programmes are published.