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Welcome to LGC Standards’ Pesticide Residue Testing Hub
Thank you for visiting our pesticides page. Here, you can find tools and technical resources for keeping you up-to-date with the latest in pesticide testing and research.
Speak to an Expert
Our team of experts is ready to assist you with your pesticide residues testing.
Comprehensive pesticide testing solutions from LGC Standards
For more than 50 years, LGC Standards companies have built a worldwide reputation for consistently developing quality pesticide reference materials, research chemicals, and proficiency testing schemes. Globally, we provide almost 6,000 pesticide products that help laboratories to keep our food and environment safe.
Our pesticides offer also includes more than 2,700 ISO 17034-accredited reference materials, which are delivered to you with comprehensive Certificates of Analysis. This guarantees that your product is a completely known quantity, and gives you supreme confidence in your results. Discover our complete range of pesticide reference materials and research chemicals.
The vital importance of pesticide residue testing
Pesticides, despite the risks they pose to both human and environmental health, remain vital tools for feeding the world’s ever-growing population.
By 2050, there are expected to be 9.7 billion people on Earth – 30% more than in 2017. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says providing for them all will depend on “either increases in yields and/or the number of times each year crops can be grown on the same land.” This means that every different class of pesticide – whether it is an insecticide, herbicide, fungicide, rodenticide, biopesticide or another type – will be needed to reduce crop losses, boost productivity, and enhance food quality.
WHO also argues that, although “pesticides are intrinsically toxic”, no pesticide product that is currently authorised for use on food in international trade is genotoxic, and that adverse effects only occur if pesticides are used in unsafe ways. Global regulation of pesticides has therefore steadily increased since the mid-20th century – banning many of the most toxic, or persistent in the environment, and seeking to protect consumers by setting maximum limits for pesticide residues in food and water.
However, WHO’s aspirations are not always being met in practice – particularly in the developing world, where maximum residue limits are often much less stringent than in developed countries. Farmers in some of these countries are also using pesticides that have been banned due to health concerns in the EU and US. These differences in pesticide uses and regulations pose significant health risks to consumers, because food products containing residues of banned chemicals are being exported worldwide.
In this scenario, pesticide residue testing can provide a vital safety net – stopping unsafe foods from reaching the open market, particularly in North America and Europe. Pesticide testing in both Europe and the US has revealed that banned insecticides like chlorpyrifos and dimethoate are among “the most prevalent pesticide residues” in imported fruit and vegetables. Meanwhile multiple pesticide residues – which scientists suspect may present humans with a “multiple hit” of toxins - are commonly found in vegetable products, herbs and spices.
