Eurofins Agro UK has launched a brand new check to assist potato growers with pesticide residue testing.

The check might be booked on-line and, the agricultural analytics service supplier mentioned, comes at a time when some farm assurance schemes have applied the necessity to check yearly, or to have an evidence-based justification for fewer checks.

The potato trade is predicted to make vital adjustments to the best way potatoes are saved after the lack of approval for chlorprophasm (CIPC), based on the corporate.

This may occasionally embrace using different chemical substances like maleic hydrazide and 1.4 dimethylnaphthalene.

Eurofins Agro provides UKAS-accredited pesticide residue checks for potatoes which prices £160/kg.

Sophie Cath of Eurofins Agro UK mentioned: “The checks might be booked and paid for on-line, and outcomes from samples which might be despatched on to our laboratory take between three and 4 weeks.”

The regulation of residues makes use of the system of statutory Most Residue Ranges (MRLs) and these symbolize the utmost secure quantities of residue more likely to stay in meals merchandise when a pesticide has been used appropriately by growers adhering to good agricultural apply (GAP). 

“Through the use of our checks, growers will obtain important information to make sure merchandise are match for goal and can be capable of present proof to regulators and shoppers that potatoes are secure by demonstrating that any residues current are beneath regulatory limits, or MRLs,” Cath mentioned.