FAO/PL:1969/M/17/1
WHO/FOOD ADD./70.38
1969 EVALUATIONS OF SOME PESTICIDE RESIDUES IN FOOD
THE MONOGRAPHS
Issued jointly by FAO and WHO
The content of this document is the result of the deliberations of the
Joint Meeting of the FAO Working Party of Experts and the WHO Expert
Group on Pesticide Residues, which met in Rome, 8 - 15 December 1969.
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
Rome, 1970
ETHION
Explanation
Residues of this pesticide were evaluated at the 1968 Joint Meeting
and a monograph was issued (FAO/WHO 1969b).*
When the recommendations made at the 1968 Joint Meeting were
considered at the Fourth Session of the Codex Committee on Pesticide
Residues it was pointed out that the suggested tolerance for meat of
cattle would raise important difficulties connected with the use of
pesticide to meet quarantine requirements. The Meeting therefore
reconsidered the recommendation pertaining to meat of cattle as
indicated in the following monograph addendum:
RESIDUES IN MEAT AND THEIR EVALUATION
USE PATTERN
The circumstances in which it may sometimes be necessary to slaughter
animals before the passage of the three-day interval that had been
recommended in 1968, and the residue data pertaining to such use were
examined. It was noted that regulations designed to prevent the spread
of cattle ticks sometimes required that animals passing from
tick-infected to clean country should be dipped and then passed
immediately to slaughter. The data presented showed that 10 percent of
samples from animals slaughtered in such areas showed residues in the
fat greater than 1.5 with very few above 2.5 ppm. It was also noted
that the residues appear almost solely in the fat and not in the
flesh; also that there is some evidence that residues in sub-cutaneous
fat are lower than that in body fat. 2.5 ppm was considered to be an
acceptable level by the Meeting.
AMENDMENT TO RECOMMENDATION FOR MEAT
TEMPORARY TOLERANCE
The figure of 2.5 ppm should replace that previously made for the fat
of meat of cattle.
As residues in fat persist in storage of meat, the tolerance can be
based on the assumption that the residues will be measured in fat at
any stage after slaughter but prior to processing or cooking. For this
reason it was decided to withdraw the words '(at slaughter)' that were
included in the recommendations for Temporary Tolerances made at the
1968 Joint Meeting (FAO/WHO, 1969a and b).*
* See Appendix II