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08/03
19 March 2003
FINAL ASSESSMENT REPORT
Executive Summary and Statement of Reasons
This Application (A468) seeks to amend Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) for non-antibiotic agricultural and veterinary chemicals in theAustralia New Zealand Food Standards Code (code). It is a routine application from the National Registration Authority for Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (NRA), to update the Code in order to reflect current registration status of agricultural and veterinary chemicals in use in Australia.
The Agreement between the Commonwealth of Australia and the Government of New Zealand to establish a system for the development of joint food standards (the Treaty), excluded MRLs for agricultural and veterinary chemicals in food from the joint Australia New Zealand food standards setting system. Australia and New Zealand independently and separately develop MRLs for agricultural and veterinary chemicals in food.
The dietary exposure assessments indicate that the residues associated with the proposed MRLs do not represent an unacceptable risk to public health and safety.
There are no MRLs for antibiotic residues in this Application.
Statement of Reasons
FSANZ recommends progressing this Application for the following reasons:
- The dietary exposure assessments indicate that the residues associated with the MRLs do not represent an unacceptable risk to public health and safety. The NRA has already registered the chemical products associated with the MRLs in this Application and the rejection of the MRLs would result in legally treated food not being able to be legally sold. Therefore, the requested changes will benefit all stakeholders by maintaining public health and safety while permitting the legal sale of food treated with agricultural and veterinary chemicals to control pests and diseases and improve agricultural productivity.
- The NRA has assessed appropriate toxicology, residue, animal transfer, processing and metabolism studies, in accordance with theGuidelines for Registering Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals, the Ag and Vet Requirements Series, 1997, to support the use of chemicals on commodities as outlined in this Application.
- The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) of the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing has undertaken an appropriate toxicological assessment of the chemical products and has established relevant acceptable daily intakes(ADI) and where applicable, the acute reference dose (ARfD).
- FSANZ has undertaken a preliminary regulation impact assessment process, which also fulfils the requirement in New Zealand for an assessment of compliance costs.
That process concluded that the amendment to theFood Standards Codeis necessary, cost effective and of benefit to both producers and consumers.
None of FSANZ's section 10 objectives of food regulatory measures are compromised by the proposed changes.
Full Report [ pdf 323 kb | Word Document 2429 kb ]